TawiPay winner of first FinTech Pitch

Last week Swiss Finance + Technology Association (Swiss FinteCH) officially launched with its open, neutral FinTech contest Swiss FinTech Pitch. 10 companies pitched and got feedback from top entrepreneurs and investors.

Winner of the first prize (a place in the FinTech Trade Mission to NYC in September and 10,000 CHF to help pay for travel and expenses for the team) is TawiPay. The start-up from Lausanne has developed a clear, transparent and easy-to-use money transfer comparison website, empowering migrants with the information they need to find the cheapest option to send money to their families in their home countries.

TawiPay tackles the excessive fees incurred by migrants sending money to their home countries. Latest World Bank data show for example that Sub-Saharan African workers overseas pay an average of 12% in money transfer fees. A fair fee of 5%, as proposed by independent international organizations, would result in an additional US $3 billion inflow of money in the Sub-Saharan African countries every year. 

The money transfer services market is opaque and dominated by big players, suppressing the emergence of new players, even when they are able to offer much better rates by taking advantage of new internet or mobile-based technologies. By increasing competition in the transfer services market, and by making the already operating service providers more cost transparent, TawiPay has the ambition to trigger positive changes that will significantly lower the price of sending money toward developing economies. 

The second prize (CHF 5’000) went to Crowdhouse, an online real estate crowd funding platform enabling anyone to invest in real estate. The launch of the online platform is scheduled for September.