The service is already available at 400 INA outlets and will expand to Bosnia and Herzegovina this autumn.
Aircash, a Croatian money transfer startup which attracted more than 15,000 users during the first 12 months of operation and reached a weekly turnover of 250,000 kuna, plans to double the growth rate by the end of the year. The goal is to overtake some of the largest international players in the industry, including Western Union, MoneyGram, WorldRemit, TransferWise and even Paypal, and become the leading service for the transfer of money to Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) from people working abroad, reports Večernji List on June 4, 2018.
According to the Croatian National Bank, Croatians working abroad sent 15.9 billion kuna to Croatia in 2017. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to the World Bank estimates, emigrants' remittances in 2016 increased the national GDP by 10.9 percent.
Hrvoje Ćosić, the founder and CEO of Aircash, said they want to make it less expensive and simpler for emigrants to send funds to Croatia and BiH. “In Croatia, we already offer payment services at 400 INA outlets. Starting from this autumn, we will offer the same service in BiH, at 120 Energopetrol fuel stations and 550 iNovine newsstands,” said Ćosić.
This week, they are participating in the most significant European fintech conference Money 2020 in Amsterdam, where they are looking for partners and investors to develop further. They will try to expand to Hungary and Slovakia via the Hungarian oil company MOL in 2019, and later to Romania and the Czech Republic. “We will seek a licence through the HNB to operate in other Central and Eastern European countries,” said Ćosić.
They also enable tourists to transfer money more efficiently to Croatia, but also to use various services offered here. Aircash has options similar to PayPal. Through the app, it is also possible to transfer and pay out money from online accounts at the Croatian Lottery and the Supersport betting chain.
“We have signed an agreement with Croatian Telecom on the sale of pre-paid mobile phone credits, and we are working on an API that will enable everyone to join in and offer the Aircash payment and money transfer services,” said Ćosić.
He came to the idea for Aircash in 2015 when he realised that, in the United States and Germany, the number of cash users was not decreasing, despite the development of non-cash payment services. At least half of the population in both countries still prefers cash, and the situation is similar in Croatia as well.
Through his Fornax company, he has also developed an armband for non-contact payment for the Ultra music festival, and he has also developed an invoice fiscalization software solution used by 800 lawyer and physician offices.
Translated from Večernji List (reported by Bernard Ivezić).
