CaribePay awarded grant by Dubai Expo2020

CaribePay awarded grant by Dubai Expo2020

CaribePay, a fintech start-up based in St Kitts and Nevis aiming to transform the Caribbean into a ‘cashless’ society, has won an Expo Live grant from organisers of the next World Expo, being held in Dubai in 2020.

The system provides a 100 percent cashless payment service that allows transactions anywhere, anytime, without electrical power or internet access.

It utilises cashcards, payment terminals and apps. For example, shoppers can pay with the cashcard and funds are securely transferred to the merchant’s CaribePay account within seconds. It can also be used for business-to-business transactions.

The CaribePay system is designed so that neither the seller nor the buyer needs a bank account to carry out a ‘cashless’ transaction. It can also be used for salary transfers and bill payments.

Fraud prevention features include displaying the card owner’s identity before the transaction takes place.

The system has been approved by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) to operate in St Kitts and Nevis. Funding from the Expo Live programme will allow CaribePay to expand into other Caribbean countries, and later into Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

Expo 2020 Dubai’s Expo Live programme has an allocation of USD 100 million to back projects that offer creative solutions to pressing challenges that impact people’s lives, or help preserve the world – or both. Organisers are looking for projects that would not reach their full potential without its support.

The programme will grant up to USD 100,000 per initiative for its Innovation Impact Grant Programme – to be made available incrementally depending on progress and results.

Mark Liburd, Country Head for CaribePay in St. Kitts and Nevis, said: “Since we first introduced CaribePay to merchants and consumers, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Businesses and consumers are amazed at the simplicity of our system, and they are eager to start using it. They all recognise the risks of carrying and using cash and are ready for a solution like ours that doesn’t have a dependency on the Internet or require a bank account to use it.