Qatar Blockchain startup C Wallet secures funding

Qatar based Blockchain financial technology startup, C Wallet Services has secured more than QR2m in grants ( 550,000 USD) and funding in its first year. C Wallet Services' known as ‘cwallet' is Qatar's first and only mobile application (app) to facilitate banking via blockchain technology.

Targeting the low-income, high-volume market such as migrant and domestic workers, as well as micro-entrepreneurs, and small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), cwallet enables access to financial services such as payroll and payments. Speaking at the Qatar Science and Technology Product Development fund signing ceremony, cwallet founder, Michael Javier, said, 'Our goal is to financially empower those who are unbanked by providing a cheaper, more inclusive and cashless solution.

Utilizing C Wallet, individuals and businesses will be able to perform local and international financial transactions online, including paying and receiving wages and sending remittances to their home countries.

 Javier and his six Qatari partners developed the innovative cwallet app under the guidance of the Digital Incubation Center (DIC), an initiative by the Ministry of Transport and Communications to boost ICT innovation in Qatar. 

As Qatar's first and only mobile application running on blockchain technology, it has been licensed by the Qatar Financial Center (QFC) as C Wallet International, and is now available at both the App Store and Google PlayStore with the ‘Payment' function.

Javier confirmed that cwallet 2.0 will be launched by Q3 2020 to enable users to directly buy and pay online using their cwallet account. ‘Payroll' and ‘Remittance' services will be added thereafter.

Beyond 2020, the innovative startup is looking even further ahead, as it plans for growth and expansion well beyond Qatar's borders. The establishment of C Wallet International aims to pursue opportunities in microfinancing and lending, white labelling its cwallet blockchain technology, and seeking out affiliate partnerships, ensuring that this homegrown technology takes financial freedom and digital empowerment to underserved markets around the world.

The founders and innovators of C Wallet Services include former HEC Paris classmates, which include the highest number of nationals in a Qatari startup