Fonepay to bring mobile wallet from January 21

Fonepay will introduce a mobile wallet from January 21.

"A mobile payment switching system, Fonepay will work as a wallet for customers, who will be able to transfer money or pay for their purchase," said Biswas Dhakal, who is president of F1 Soft International that has powered Fonepay.

The wallet — a uniquely designed platform — will facilitate customers of any bank and also the unbanked customer to pay nationally from Nabil Bank, Sunrise Bank and Machhapuchchhre Bank initially, according to chief executive of Fonepay Asgar Ali. "Within three months, we will have more than half a dozen banks as members."

"A customer of one bank can pay a merchant acquired by another bank, with ‘Fonepay’," he said, adding a customer, who receives money directly in the mobile phone, can deposit it to a bank account, cash out using any associated agent network, or utilise that amount for acquiring any service associated with Fonepay like merchant payment, utility payment, person to person transfer or can store it in the wallet account for future purposes.

Powered by F1 Soft International — one of the finalists for the 2012 Red Herring Top 100 Asia Award — Fonepay will also facilitate international remittance to transfer remitted amount directly to a mobile phone.

"The company is also planning to pay interest on the amount accumulated in the wallet account," Ali said, adding that Fonepay targets to serve in national and international money transfer services with low cost and efficient services that will help channel more remittance due to cost reduction.

One has to register with Fonepay to avail the service, which is easy, he added.

Currently, Fonepay has 22 member banks with a customer base of 1,500,000. The company has already partnered with nine remittance companies with more than 4,500 agent locations covering all parts of Nepal, besides the 13 international remittance companies for digital remittance, which covers more than 30 per cent of the market share.

F1Soft International in Red Herring Top 100 Asia

A domestic software company – F1Soft International – has made it to the final 100 winners list of Red Herring's Top 100 Asia award for its innovative products and services in the Mobile Financial Service sector in Nepal.

Red Herring has announced its Top 100 award in recognition of the leading private technology companies of Asia, celebrating the innovations and technologies of these startups across their respective industries.

"Our products and services, which were considered new a few years back, are already successful and widely accepted in Nepal," said president of F1Soft International Biswas Dhakal, highlighting the current market presence and the evolution of its products and services in the award ceremony organised in Hong Kong on September 10-12, where some 200 finalists from across Asia, Australia and New Zealand also made their presentations out of which 100 were selected as winners.

"The award has recognised the fact that our success in Nepal is no small feat and our innovations are truly world class," said Dhakal, thanking his team for helping make it possible and the valued clients for trusting the company and using its products to create a winning combination for success.

F1Soft is the largest provider of transactional banking products and mobile financial services in the domestic market for many banks and financial institutions, including mobile banking, internet banking, remittance and eSewa.

"F1Soft has become the first and only company from Nepal to receive this prestigious award," the young entrepreneur added.

Red Herring’s Top 100 Asia list has become a mark of distinction for identifying promising new companies and entrepreneurs. Red Herring editors were among the first to recognise companies like Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Skype, Salesforce.com, YouTube, and eBay, which have changed the way we live and work.

"Choosing companies with the strongest potential was by no means a small feat," said publisher and chief executive of Red Herring Alex Vieux.

"After rigorous contemplation and discussion, we narrowed down our list from hundreds of candidates from across Asia to the Top 100 winners," he said, adding that they believed F1Soft International embodies the vision, drive and innovation that define a successful entrepreneurial venture. "F1Soft should be proud of its accomplishment, as the competition was the strongest it has ever been."

Red Herring’s editorial staff evaluated the companies on both quantitative and qualitative criteria like financial performance, technology innovation, management quality, strategy, and market penetration.

The assessment of potential is complemented by a review of the track record and standing of startups relative to their peers, allowing Red Herring to see past the 'buzz' and make the list a valuable instrument of discovery and advocacy for the most promising new business models in Asia.