3 years after raising $7m in Initial Coin Offering, where is SureRemit today
3 years after raising $7m in Initial Coin Offering, where is SureRemit today?
By the end of 2017, blockchain and cryptocurrency had established themselves as significant technology fields in Africa. The years that followed saw a massive increase in the number of players and an increase in investment.
SureRemit was one of the pioneers in figuring out how to use technology for good. The company began utilizing blockchain technology in order to lower the cost of sending money to Africa.
SureRemit is a blockchain-based international money transfer platform. The platform generates digital vouchers that can be used to send and receive money using cryptocurrency tokens. Additionally, it provided a cost-effective, non-cash method of sending money to family and friends back home.
SureRemit was solving a significant problem
This occurred during a period when approximately 250 million global migrants transferred $601 billion to their home countries, according to World Bank data. Over a third of that amount was allocated to developing countries. Sub-Saharan Africa received $39 billion of that total, with Nigeria receiving approximately $20 billion.
Numerous Africans were required to pay significant commissions to middlemen to facilitate transactions. Senders to Sub Saharan Africa, according to a report, pay the highest fees, approximately 10% of every $200.
SureRemit claimed to charge low transaction fees (as low as 0% ), in contrast to established platforms such as Moneygram and Western Union, which charged an average of about 7.45 percent globally. According to the company, it circumvents the traditional banking system by connecting customers directly to local merchants who pay a small transaction fee.
Part of the SureGroup
SureGifts, SureRemit, and SureCredit are all subsidiaries of Suregroup. SureGifts, a platform for gift cards, was founded in 2014 by the group. Olaoluwa Samuel-Biyi, Adeoye Ojo, and Babafemi Lawal founded the company to provide retail voucher solutions for gifting/loyalty, remittances, and credit.
The three co-founders were all former Jumia Nigeria employees. Adeoye Ojo previously worked as a Senior Marketing Analyst/Business Intelligence analyst (Marketing). Babafemi Lawal served as the Director of Business Intelligence (Operations), while Olaoluwa Samuel-Biyi served as the Director of Business Intelligence (Production and Purchasing).
SureCredit is a voucher-based credit financing platform designed specifically for employees of certain African businesses. It did not scale as quickly as one might expect to become a widely accepted token.
While its tokens cannot be exchanged for cash, they can be used to confirm payment for items like utility bills, student tuition, and online consumer goods. Jumia, a popular online African merchant, is one such approved merchant.
Growth, raises and expansion plans
SureRemit raised $7 million in an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in January 2018 to expand its remittance capabilities, with participation from companies such as Hashed, "South Korea's largest cryptocurrency fund." It was one of the top ten fundraises by Nigerian startups in 2018, according to Technext.
SureRemit announced its intention to expand its operations to the United States, Europe, and Australia less than a year and a half later. Along with the announcement, the company stated that it had added some merchants based in the United States to its platform.
This included “BestBuy, Walmart, Adidas, Chipotle, and more,” according to a tweet.
Similarly, it announced that residents of Finland, Belgium, Turkey, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Germany, Denmark, Austria, and Ireland will now have access to its zero-fee remittance offerings.
All seems to be quiet now
The expansion announcements in 2019 were the company's most recent significant updates. This appears to be followed by a period of relative inactivity. For example, the social media pages have consistently shared post updates, but no major product, milestone, or expansion announcements have been made.
That seems excessively routine for a fintech startup with a $7 million funding round.
Additionally, the founders' public profiles indicate that they have been juggling multiple roles at different companies in recent years and are no longer fully committed to building the company full time.
For instance, according to Olaoluwa Samuel-LinkedIn Biyi's profile, he is the Principal, Ventures at Blockchain.com, a London-based company that provides cryptocurrency wallets and an API that enables businesses to build on Bitcoin. He has also worked as a curator at Cryptoeconomics.com for approximately five months. He has remained a director at SureGroup for over seven years.
Adeoye Ojo, co-founder and director of sales operations, has joined Hashed (alongside Olaoluwa) as a partner, the company that reportedly led the $7 million investment round in 2018. He has been for well over three years at this point.
According to reports, Hashed Capital has invested in similar startups and digital assets. These include virtual asset exchanges wallet.ng and crowdforce.io, as well as Busha.co and the LifeHack Foundation, an organization that assists underprivileged individuals with human capital development.
Adeoye is also a full-time director at Busha, a Hashed portfolio company. Busha's stated mission is to connect Africa to the new digital economy through the use of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. Busha has existed for over two years but is still relatively unknown in the cryptocurrency space. He remains a director at SureGroup as well.
According to his profile, Babafemi Lawal is still a full director. Omolara Awoyemi, a Jumia graduate, served as the group's CEO until 2019. Later, she joined Facebook and founded Bumpa. However, the identity of the current CEO is unknown.
In Conclusion
SureRemit entered the market at a critical juncture for the crypto space in Africa. Four years later, despite a significant early raise, the startup is no longer a market leader.
This raises numerous questions, which only the SureGroup team can answer. And we sincerely hope they do.
