When and why did the business start?
Early on it was clear to me the existing system was not fit-for-purpose and needed a reboot, yet the remittance landscape was slow to evolve. As a first-generation immigrant, I watched first-hand as my father struggled with sending money back to India through a well-known remittance platform. The whole experience was stressful, expensive, and time-consuming. Unfortunately, this was a process repeated religiously for many years.
It was evident the world of global payments needed to change. So, I created a business that is truly global and accessible to millions of people around the world, while simultaneously simplifying and democratising an out-of-date process. Sokin has been built to help keep money in the pockets of those who really need it and to support those on the outside of the English-centric financial ecosystem. People like my father.
Where do you see Sokin’s place in the digital payments world?
The payments industry is steeped in legacy processes and historic regulations financial services must adhere to; it cannot be changed overnight. However, Sokin provides an alternative option more suited to the modern world we live in.
There’s simply no reason why today’s customers should continue to accept opaque commissions, unexplained costs, or repeat charges. We no longer pay for every track we download thanks to the likes of Spotify, or each film we stream via platforms like Netflix, yet when people want to send money or make a payment to family back home, we are hit by unspecified and variable costs.
The Sokin Global Currency Account is a payments platform that offers consumers a low-cost alternative to the current remittance system. We are the only payments provider who has taken the popular subscription model and used it to enable global payments. Accessed through an advanced peer-to-peer mobile app available on iOS and Android, customers can receive, convert, and hold unlimited money transfers and spend cost-effective currency exchange in 38 currencies to over 200 countries and territories for one fixed monthly fee, without any hidden charges. Sokin provides a greater level of transparency, and the customer is aware of what they are paying from day one.
Customers can access currencies such as Euros, Dollars, Dirhams, Paseos, to name only a few, and enjoy a larger international reach than currently available via alternative providers on the market.
Sokin wasn’t created to be a money-making machine, we were set up to make change. If people use our product and it helps them, then that’s a win for me. I hope it’s this commitment to ‘fintech for good’ that people start to recognise us for, and how we make an impact in the already saturated payments world.
How important are your ties to Premier League football teams?
Highly important. Football is a global game with a global reach with over three billion people watching the Premier League each season. This offers an unrivalled platform for Sokin to tap into an audience we wouldn’t be able to access otherwise.
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Our portfolio of football club partners has blossomed very quickly in 12 months. By partnering with the likes of Arsenal, Fulham, Everton and AS Monaco, we have an opportunity to bring our product direct to the fans at the forefront of the biggest league in the world. Most recently, we partnered with the Miami Dolphins, our first NFL team and step into the American sporting scene. And we won’t be stopping there.
The affinity fans have for their club is vital in helping build trust and authenticity between our brand and the fanbase. For example, our partners use Sokin’s Enterprise product for more efficient, high-volume payments at a fixed fee, saving both time and money. Fans see their club using and promoting Sokin and naturally feel reassured that we are both a dependable partner and a trusted financial provider. That’s a first-class endorsement.
Football legend and pundit, Rio Ferdinand, is also one of our early investors after I meet him through a mutual friend, so the move into football was the natural step forward.
How has Covid-19 affected your business?
In all honesty, it hasn’t. I launched Sokin just before the pandemic hit so the abnormal was the norm for us. Since then, the company has grown and scaled exponentially in a short timeframe. The pandemic forced us into a way of working which, even today, feels unnatural to many legacy businesses. It is a way of working which has been built into our culture from the very beginning and we quickly discovered the location of the job doesn’t define the quality of work produced.
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As a young start-up, growth is very important to us. Sokin’s geo expansion and speed is very competitive as well as our desire to continue to grow our partner portfolio.
We will continue our ambitious roll-out of the Sokin Global Currency Account in regions such as North America, Asia Pacific, South Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East in 2022 following a tremendously successful three months following our initial product launch in August.
The Sokin Global Currency Account – including debit cards – is already available in 27 European countries, including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden as well as the United Kingdom – a much larger footprint than others on the market.
Our global roll-out plan is very ambitious however, Sokin is an agile start-up supported by a highly experienced team with a combined total of 150 years in payments expertise. We’ve started strong and show no signs of slowing down.