Technology
09/08/2016

Mozido: Friend or Foe


friend-or-foe-3.png

About two billion people are completely unbanked across the globe today. These are individuals with no checking, savings accounts or credit cards. They lack basic financial services that people in developed economies take for granted.

That said, there are also over six billion smartphones in the world. It’s now common even for the unbanked in developing economies to own some kind of mobile device. These individuals represent a huge, ignored opportunity for financial service providers. They’re exactly the people that mobile payments technology provider Mozido aims to serve. Mozido’s core technology is a cloud-based mobile payments platform for both consumers and businesses. Within that are mobile financial services, payments and loyalty programs. All someone needs to make use of the platform is access to a mobile device.

So what does this opportunity look like for banks?

THE GOOD:
One of the best-use scenarios for Mozido is bill bay for the unbanked. These are the people that stand in line at an office or local convenience store to pay their bills with cash. With Mozido’s mobile wallet, consumers can instead “top up” their account through verified merchants. Instead of waiting in line to pay their bills with cash, people can pay through the Mozido mobile wallet. The mobile wallet also functions for a variety of other payments. Think of international money transfers that the unbanked get charged high fees for. Instead of sending an international wire transfer through Western Union, consumers have another option. They can use their Mozido mobile wallet to send money across borders at a fraction of the cost.

THE BAD:
On top of payments, Mozido offers POS and CRM integration for merchants. And an enterprise mobile rewards solution. And a real-time B2B cash-processing solution called mVault. And a cloud-based mobile transaction architecture called MoTEAF.

Get the point?

Mozido has grand ambitions in the payment space, there’s no doubt about that. But is tackling too many aspects all at once taking away from its focus? In the area of mobile payments, strong regional players in developing economies are emerging. They’re servicing the unbanked in localized, efficient and low-cost ways. If you live in Kenya, there’s a mobile payments wallet designed with Kenyans in mind. And so on for Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa. Other areas like POS, CRM and cloud infrastructure are also crowded with superior products. With almost every aspect of Mozido’s suite, you can say almost the exact same thing. Does it work? Yes. Is there a better option out there? Probably.

OUR VERDICT: FOE
Today, Mozido is pursuing a strategy of partnering with and acquiring firms in the mobile payment space. Mozido’s main focus of late has been the Asia-Pacific region, including forays into China and Taiwan. As Mozido continues to push into various areas of mobile payments, we consider Mozido to be a foe, although it is not as much of a threat as many other domestic fintechs, as its focus is not the United States, and the underbanked aren’t necessarily the most sought after (read: profitable) customers a bank could grab. Should Mozido create partnerships here in the states, I might change my tune, but for now it’s positioned closer to the minor nuisance end of the spectrum. For the consumer, Mozido represents an opportunity that many have never had before, and a much needed one—so perhaps there could be a friendly future for all? Time will tell!

Bank Director Staff Writer