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1) Who are the three major competitors in the blockchain based micro-financing and payments company? Please focus only on companies that are focused on supporting entrepreneurs in developing countries who are aligned with the UN’s sustainable development goals.
After analyzing the companies that were available in the blockchain based micro-financing and payments space, I determined that Moeda's three major competitors are: 1) Stellar.org; 2) BitPesa and 3) Everex. Below you will find a deep dive of my research and findings.
OVERVIEW
Due to the fact that Moeda remains fairly new (having only been launched in April 2017) and belongs to an emerging sector, the company does not have Owler, Crunchbase or Hoover profiles. Instead, I determined Moeda's top three competitors by using a few other ways. Firstly, I used Moeda's webpage and media articles to find out more about their product offerings, underlying technology and target market. Secondly, I looked through various lists and reports on blockchain based micro-financing and payments company to determine what type of companies generally belonged to the industry.
I then individually cross-verified each company's product offerings with that of Moeda's before determining if their operations were aligned with the UN’s sustainable development goals. I also excluded companies that had not been launched yet and did not have a set launch date. To top it off, I compared whether the companies shared similar competitive advantages/unique selling points with Moeda.
While Humaniq, Omise and Moeda share similar product offerings, I excluded Humaniq and Omise as top competitors because: 1) Humaniq has not been launched yet (with no specified launch date either) and 2) Omise's business model is not aligned with the UN’s sustainable development goals, as it is completely profit driven.
At the end of my analysis, I was able to narrow down three companies that can be considered as Moeda's major competitors, namely: 1) Stellar.org, 2) BitPesa and 3) Everex.
STELLAR.ORG
Also known as The Stellar Development Foundation, Stellar.org is a nonprofit dedicated to promoting financial inclusion and literacy in the developing world. Like Moeda, its focus is on banking the unbanked - providing simple transfers, microcredit and peer to peer remittances. It also uses its own currency -- Stellar uses Lumens while Moeda uses tokens. However, Stellar's emphasis is on providing the financial infrastructure for other nonprofits or organizations to use as part of their own initiatives; for example, Vumi and Oradian, both of which microfinance initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa. True to its nonprofit model, Stellar's network also charges a negligible fee (a fraction of a fraction of a penny, or $0.01 for 600000 transactions) that is redistributed to compensate for inflation. There is significantly more effort placed into Moeda's front end services (specialised Moeda mobile apps etc.).
BITPESA
Athough BitPesa runs on a for profit model, it aims to facilitate, hasten and lower the costs of FX and B2B transactions of entrepreneurs and individuals by leveraging on the Bitcoin network. Targeting Nigerian, Kenyan and Ugandan markets, it allows primarily African users to make cheaper, faster transfers; both domestic and international). It also gives its users the choice and platform to purchase Bitcoin. However, unlike Moeda, it does not specificially position itself as a remittance service provider -- although it does promote itself as a low cost currency exchange and transfer platform.
EVeREX
Out of all the three competitors listed, Everex is the most similar to Moeda in terms of strategy, product offering, age and competitive advantage. Both focus on banking the unbanked by leveraging on mobile phones to conduct financial transactions, and both companies also emphasize on the use of peer to peer networks and special currencies (Moeda's token vs Everex's CryptoCash) to speed up and simplify transfers. However, Everex features peer to peer lending at extremely competitive rates whereas Moeda intergrates an NGO charity lending program into their platform.
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, Moeda's top three competitors are Stellar.org, BitPesa and Everex. These three companies form the competitive landscape analysis that is done in the next part of the request.
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