South Korea’s leading fintech company specializing in cross-border money transfer, SentBe Inc., has announced that it has been named in the fourth cohort of Inclusive Fintech 50 (IF50). IF50 is a global innovation competition that aims to identify and elevate cutting-edge emerging inclusive fintech companies that have the potential to drive financial inclusion. IF50 highlights high-potential start-up fintech companies addressing limitations in financial services for unserved or underserved customers.

Founded in 2015 with a mission to “build borderless finance for more,” SentBe is a fintech company providing innovations in international transactions both for consumers and businesses. As recognized by IF50, SentBe’s customer-to-customer (C2C) money transfer service of the same name has made an impact on the market. While driving growth by becoming one of Korea’s top digital remittance services in terms of transaction volume, SentBe has been strategically managing its impact in financial inclusion by focusing on inclusivity, affordability, and accessibility. Based on the efforts, SentBe was selected as one of the 50 winners from a global pool of hundreds of eligible applicants.

Among SentBe’s total active users, 69 per cent appear to have nationalities of, and send money to, low and middle-income countries. Given the fact that only twenty-seven per cent of registered foreigners in Korea are migrant workers from lower-income countries, SentBe targets and serves one of the minor demographic segmentations.

SentBe’s fee is up to eighty per cent lower than the fees of Korean banks. In total, SentBe’s accumulated transaction amount has reached 93 million USD as of 2022. In addition, SentBe’s fee rate, 1.2 per cent of the total remittance amount on average, has already exceeded one of the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), which aims at reducing fees to less than 3 per cent of the transaction costs of migrant remittances by 2030.

Sixty-four per cent of SentBe’s total transactions by migrant users were made during times when banks are closed. This demonstrates SentBe’s advantage in usability, as the service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Seventy-four percent of SentBe’s transactions were also completed within a day, even on weekends.

“SentBe’s inclusion on the list of IF50 2022 winners validates our firm’s commitment to making our cross-border money transfer services inclusive and impactful based on our data analytics and sound digital infrastructure,” said SentBe CEO Alex Choi. “We will continue to emphasize removing barriers in foreign exchange services and bringing convenience to those often marginalized in financial services – notably, migrant workers around the world.”

“I believe making money and value at the same time is possible, as SentBe has been and will be doing. At SentBe, I have been working in managing and deepening impacts in such ways. I believe that SentBe’s approach is about producing rigorous evidence that will inform policymakers and businesses in making diverse types of financial services and products more inclusive for all,” said SentBe’s Head of Business Impact, Hanna Yim.

The IF50, in its fourth year, is a global competition powered by the CFI, a think tank based in the US. The annual competition selects 50 top technology startups driving financial inclusion for billions of underserved people around the world. Finalists are chosen by an independent panel of expert judges from leading venture capital, technology and financial services firms. The list highlights the most promising fintech startups providing innovative credit, insurance, savings and other critical financial services to unbanked, marginalized and vulnerable populations.

In addition to the nomination as one of the winners of the 2022 IF50, SentBe will host a session at CFI’s Financial Inclusion Week 2022, an annual virtual event taking place on October 17-20, where inclusive finance stakeholders gather to learn from one another and share key findings. SentBe’s session, titled “Impact and Lessons from a Real FinTech in Cross-border Money Transfer for Migrants and MSMEs in Korea”, will showcase its measured impacts and its users’ unique financial behaviors observed from real transaction data.