Pay and go online
Telr offers the required technology and expertise to realise a digitalised society
Excerpts from an interview with Sirish Kumar, CEO and Co-Founder of Telr: What is Telr? How does it help in bringing more entrepreneurs online and expanding their existing business? Telr is helping entrepreneurs in selling goods and services by offering customers to pay online. Our merchants are able to accept payments by selling on social media or through a mobile app website. The UAE is a unique country attracting young entrepreneurs with high Internet usage, smartphone and social media penetration.
We feel very humbled when our merchants say that we have helped them start their online business with one or two people in UAE and grow their business to more than 10 countries and 25 towns. To our merchants, we not only provide systems and tools but also access to our team, which has a vast experience of more than 20 years in PayPal, World Pay and Voicecommerce. Through our proprietary and risk management tools, we offer value-added services on increasing revenues to our online merchants without compromising on security of these online transactions.
Regardless of the currencies used by the buyers around the world, to purchase from our UAE merchants, our merchants receive money in local denomination in the UAE. Today our merchants offer taxi services, sell fashion products, offer services to open legal entities in the UAE, collect management services fees from residences, deliver food and daily essentials to homes, and enable you to travel to different parts of the world.
We see online merchant entrepreneurs use our tools to accept and manage online payments via website, mobile and social media such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. Clearly, we feel excited to have invested in a strong experienced team in the UAE, and in local data centres with emphasis on security.
As we are in fin-tech sector, it is important to keep our offering and customer service support simple and very responsive. This helps online entrepreneurs to focus on their business by spending less time on KYC documentation needed for starting their business online or spend less money on engaging technical resources to become capable of accepting online payments.
We are in the forefront of partnering with multiple banks in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other countries beyond the Middle East, to help them acquire merchants through e-commerce.
We have the full stack payment technology, including automated on-boarding for merchants, risk management and anti-fraud solutions. Banks have recognised Telr by awarding it the Best Payment Product Award in 2015. What are your expectations from the UAE market in 2017? How do you foresee the economy to evolve this year? The UAE is set to be the leading centre for innovation and growth in the Middle East and emerging markets. In its aim to transition to a cashless economy, the country is going to observe an increment in digitalisation, following suit with the smart city initiative. Less than 18 per cent of small and medium entrepreneurs (that contribute to more than 60 per cent of GDP of the UAE) have online payment acceptance capabilities. We expect close partnerships between players like Telr, banks and the regulator to accelerate pace of digitisation. This will foster technological innovation. We hope to bring more experienced talent, as more funds are made available to e-commerce sector, as seen in countries like India and Singapore. We feel proud to have invested in a strong experienced team in the UAE with local data centres with emphasis on security, thereby partnering with the UAE based entrepreneurs to help them grow in GCC and beyond. Dubai, as we know is the capital of malls. And now, we see an increase in the e-commerce penetration? How do you perceive two competitors co-existing in the economy? While e-commerce is about convenience and ease, and appeal to the class of people that is always on the move, malls offer a vivid experience. Both sectors have enormous opportunities coming up this year. There are certain spectacular malls projects in the pipeline, while the ecommerce sector in the UAE is going to be valued at $10 billion (Dh36.7 billion) by 2018, as reflected in the report by Frost & Sullivan.
Furthermore, the success of these two sectors opens opportunities of collaboration in the near future. We may witness the emergence of newer business models, blurring the lines separating shopping online and offline. Malls may partner with e-payment service-providers to enhance their offering, allowing customers to pay online for offline purchases, without having to stand in longer queues, while also saving time. What role are the banks going to play in the e-commerce boom and digital payments landscape? The emergence of digital payment services does not, in anyway, render banks obsolete. In fact, payments solution providers like Telr need to work in close association with the banks. Banks have recognised Telr by awarding it the Best Payment Product Award in 2015. While banks have adopted a consumer-centric approach and carry trust and loyalty, payment solutions providers have pioneered innovative products and services, meant for seamlessly disseminating banking and financial services to the masses. In fact, our partnering banks perceive Telr as an innovative, technology partner offering online payment customised solutions to private entrepreneurs and the government bodies. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome more banks to come forward and join the wave of digitalisation and e-commerce in the UAE.