MANILA, Philippines – BeamAndGo Pte Ltd, an alternative remittance service that guards against misspent funds through digital gift certificates, has forged a partnership with I-Remit to offer over-the-counter payment services for OFWs to provide for their families’ grocery shopping in the Philippines.
BeamAndGo CEO, Jonathan E. Chua said, “We understand that many of I-Remit’s customers have apportioned a specific budget from their remittances to their families’ monthly grocery spending. Instead of sending cash, OFWs can now purchase our convenient digital gift certificates which can be redeemed by their loved ones at our participating supermarkets.”
The insight on the behavior of I-Remit customers is further supported by a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) study on OFWs which revealed that 82% of overseas remittances are allocated for their families’ basic needs such as food, supplies, medicine, healthcare, and utilities.
The partnership with I-Remit, which owns 12% of OFW remittance market, will expand BeamAndGo’s distribution network to over 1,400 payment centers. At present, BeamAndGo actively promotes its digital gift certificates in 9 markets: Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, UK, UAE, Japan, Australia, Taiwan and the Philippines.
I-Remit Chairman and CEO, Bansan Choa, said: “We are committed to serving Filipinos everywhere in the world through our modern and efficient remittance facilities. We are excited to partner with BeamAndGo to offer their innovative digital gift certificate platform to our customers who want to assure their remittances will be channeled specifically to grocery spending.”
Jonathan E. Chua added, “Both firms strive to be an instrument of positive change for OFWs and their families. And together, we can provide a more comprehensive remittance service that addresses the issue of fragmentation and leakage. Our services complement each other and I’m looking forward to a long and positive relationship.”
I-Remit customers can now purchase BeamAndGo digital gift certificates in 3 simple steps: First, they indicate the amount they wish to send, select the supermarket, and complete the form with the recipient’s information. Recipients in the Philippines will receive an SMS bearing a redemption code within a few minutes. With this code, the recipient proceeds to the selected supermarket and presents the code during checkout to redeem.
With partnerships with payment centers such as I-Remit, the Filipino remittance startup expects its customer base to grow from 70,000 to 300,000 and revenues to hit $1.5 million by December 31, 2016.
To celebrate the partnership with BeamAndGo, I-Remit customers will receive a discount of Php50 for every Php1000 worth of digital gift certificates bought from August 1 to October 31, 2015.
