Azimo’s Mobile Payments Operations Expand Scope

Remittances are on a lot of minds these days, ever since President Trump called particular attention to the financial service that allows workers in one country to more readily send cash back home to another country. It turns out the US-Mexico remittance pipeline is far from the only one, as Azimo—which focuses on the Nordic countries—dropped word our way about an expansion of its own money transfer operations.

After seeing usage of its services more than double—it increased 150 percent in the region—just in the last year, Azimo made the move to step up the service likely in a bid to see where else it could find market share. For customers in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, it’s now possible to transfer money to another 10 countries in both the Asia-Pacific and Eastern Europe regions, including Thailand, Hong Kong, Romania, Bulgaria and several others.

With the new service, users can transfer cash to local bank accounts in local currency, allowing for ready translation from krone to baht or whichever equivalents need be used. Given that there are almost 3.5 million foreigners living in that three-country region, it’s no surprise to see demand for remittance services on the rise. In fact, Azimo recently concluded a $20 million fundraising round to bring in more operating capital for further expansion.

The growth of remittances in recent months proves the value of services like Azimo’s. We’ve heard plenty about remittances lately, and it’s not surprising that they’re cropping up in wealthier countries all over the world. Where there are jobs, so too will there be people coming in to take them. Routing cash back home from those countries, therefore, becomes important; giving it a mobile connection is even better, since most of those foreign workers likely have some kind of mobile phone for keeping in touch with their loved ones back home. The sheer gains that Azimo has seen alone underscore the importance of all this; that 150 percent hike means a clear trend at work.

Azimo is joining a crowd of mobile payments services that are helping to fund remittances back home for a host of foreign workers, and in the process, helping to give those countries functioning economies of their own.