Qatar’s CWallet Secures More Than QAR 2 Million in Grants and Funding
Qatar’s first-ever banking app using blockchain, CWallet targets low-income, high-volume markets such as migrant and domestic workers in the GCC.
Qatar-based FinTech startup CWallet – the country’s first-ever and only mobile app offering banking via blockchain technology – has secured more than QAR 2 million in grants and funding for its service aimed for low-income, high-volume markets, such as migrants and domestic workers, and microentrepeneurs and SMEs. The app facilitates various financial services for the bankless and under-banked, such as payroll, payments, paying bills, transferring money back home to family and friends, and more.
“Our goal is to financially empower those who are unbanked by providing a cheaper, more inclusive and cashless solution,” says CWallet’s’ founder Michael Javier – who founded the start-up along with six Qatari co-founders, making it the startup with the most Qatari founders in the country where nationals only makeup 12% of the population.
Aiming to navigate linguistic barriers, the app is available in nine different languages, and came to life through Qatar’s Ministry of Transport and Communications’ Digital Incubation Centre, which works to boost ICT innovation in the country, particularly in terms of young entrepreneurs in tech businesses. The app has also been licensed by the Qatar Financial Centre and is available with the payment function on both the App Store and Google Play.
CWallet hopes to launch its 2.0 version by the end of this year, which will enable users to pay for and buy items and services online using their CWallet digital wallet. Javier and the team hope to expand its operations outside of Qatar, as they look to include various microfinancing and lending services, ultimately providing unbanked markets globally with more financial and digital empowerment.
