Coowry, an end-to-end micropayment platform that lets mobile customers use their airtime as digital cash, is creating a Global Marketplace for digital transactions.
Coowry solves the complexity and costs of micropayments in the digital economy, where billions of dollars are exchanged each year (on apps, digital contents, affiliate payments and P2P transactions), and where the average individual transaction amounts are less than US$10.
Their solution makes micropayment processing easy and frictionless, using Telecoms Operators as "exchange agents" instead of Banks. It is commission free both for users and merchants and transactions, with values starting from just a few cents clear in real time. Any user with a mobile phone number can start using Coowry immediately, without the need to register, download an app, or have a banking relationship.
Coowry joined the EIT Digital Accelerator program early in their development and since then has been working out of EIT Digital's Madrid Co-Location Centre, located at the IMDEA Software Institute within the campus of the Madrid Technical University. This has allowed them have access to top Technical University computer science students, who worked on the development of the platform and are now part of the core team, as well as direct access to EIT Digital's network of corporate partners and supported scaleups.
During 2017 EIT Digital will continue supporting Coowry through its Access to Finance programme, providing expert advice and opening doors to targeted venture capital investors from across Europe. In addition Coowry will continue to participate in the events and activities organised by EIT Digital through its Business Communities.
Coowry has strategic partnerships with Telecom Operators in South East Asia and Latin America, enabling micropayments for more than 500M customers. They are now expanding to Europe with the largerst players in the region.
Since their operational launch at the end of 2016 over 170,000 payment/settlement transactions have been completed on 40,000 mobile phones, and close to 40 on-line merchants are accepting air time as currency and using Coowry to settle payments to their affiliates and developers.
Manuel Hermenegildo, Spain Director of EIT Digital said: "We are very pleased to continue working with Coowry and hosting them in our Co Location Centre at IMDEA Software Institute. They have an innovative solution and we have been able to generate unique synergies among our network of partners and startups across Europe. They are a living example of EIT Digital's focus of integrating education, research and business by bringing together students, researchers and entrepreneurs."
David Moreno, CEO of Coowry said: "We joined the Accelerator because we have strong growth ambitions and to be backed by a European Institution like EIT Digital enhances our credibility. We also want to create partnerships with leading European industrial players and expand our options for reaching international Venture Capital firms."
