SawasdeeShop moves into ‘sunrise’ money transfer business

SawasdeeShop, a tier-two telecom solutions provider powered by a Sikh husband and wife team, has taken the plunge into an equally competitive international money transfer business.

Sawasdeeshop Co Ltd has emerged as as one of the first non-banks to receive the coveted international money transfer license from the Bank of Thailand, the nation’s central bank.

“I see sunrise in this business. In telecom, I see sunset. In terms of opportunities, we see huge potentials in this area, especially with the deployment of fintech,” SawasdeeShop CEO Aswin Phlaphongphanic told Asia Samachar in a telephone interview.

With the license, SawasdeeShop has luanched DeeMoney, with an initial focus on providing Khmer migrants a faster, more secure and convenient way to send money back to Cambodia.

DeeMoney has picked Wing Money, which has more than 3,000 branches in Cambodia, as its pay-out partner.

Locally, DeeMoney has launched its first branch at Imperial Samrong, a popular destintation for foreign migrant workers in Bangkok.

“Watch this space for more exciting news as we roll out plans to launch international money transfer services to India, Phillipines, Myanmar, UK, US, Australia and more within the coming months,” said SawasdeeShop director Rasmegh Srisethi, who is also Aswin’s wife.

Deemoney has announced plans to launch in another 16 countries in March.

“More branches and more exciting FinTech developments in the pipeline as well,” she said.

Established over 17 years, SawasdeeShop Group is a tier 2 telecom provider licensed by NTC in Thailand, with a wide-variety spectrum of voice technology services to cater to the entire end-to-end solution for customers. It manages over 2 billion minutes a year, with 15 POPs globally, according to information at its website.

The company said its success is driven in delivering new technologies and constantly innovating new products and services in the ever evolving and challenging voice technology industry.

But Aswin acknowledged that SawasdeeShop is facng keen competition in the telecoms sector.

“Voice is a tough business. In telecoms, you have giants, big players with lots of money, and saturation,” he said.

So, do they plan to quit the telecoms sector? Not quite. Instead, SawasdeeShop plans to leverage its existing voice business customer base to cross sell the new money transfer service.

SawasdeeShop has already embedded the new direction into its mission statement, which reads: To simplify the logistics of Voice and Money for both consumer and corporate market segments, as well as masses and under-served in Asean by delivering cutting-edge and disruptive technologies in the most affordable and convenient ways.

“The next wave of opportunities is where technology can benefit the financial industry,” he said.

[ASIA SAMACHAR is an online newspaper for Sikhs in Southeast Asia and surrounding countries. We have a Facebook page, do give it a LIKE. Follow us on Twitter. Visit our website: www.asiasamachar.com] 17637

RELATED STORY:

Kulshaan Singh takes up key role at Bangkok-based Charoen Pokphand Group (Asia Samachar, 2 Feb 2018)

Malaysian entrepreneur to venture into Nepal hydropower (Asia Samachar, 27 Dec 2017)

Stand shoulder to shoulder with your spouse, says business award winner (Asia Samachar, 15 Dec 2017)