Will mobile money ever replace cash in the last mile? Where, when, and how? Thursday, January 7, 2010
The advent of electronic money movement, coupled with the ubiquity of mobile handsets in the market promises convergence of two industries which will lead to a transformation in certain segments of the financial services space.
Join the Wharton Club of Northern California and the Harvard Business School Technology Alumni Association to learn the more about the global competitive forces at stake in mobile money movement and for an invigorating panel discussion - an exclusive gathering of leading executives from the mobile payments industry.
Menekse Gencer, Founder of mPay Connect Consulting
www.mpayconnect.com, is the Producer and Moderator for this event. She will provide a short presentation to set the stage for the discussion prior to moderating a panel of top-notch executives from both incumbent companies as well as disruptive startups focusing on the last mile of mobile payments. In this panel, we are excited to host Thor Hauge: the new mobile VP for Western Union;
Ben Lyon: an expert on informal economics and microfinance in emerging markets who has now started his own open source mobile payments company; and Toffene B. Kama: A Harvard Business School graduate who grew up in grew up in Senegal knowing first-hand how cash-based economies work and was inspired to address remittance "last mile" usage with the Willstream initiative.
Register Online
Date: Thursday, January 7, 2010
Time: 6:00pm-7:00pm Networking Reception. 7:00pm-8:30pm Presentation and Panel Discussion
Location: Google Headquarters,
1600 Ampitheater Parkway, Building 43, 2nd Floor, Mountain View, CA
Cost: WCNC members, members of affiliate clubs and their accompanied guests: $20 per person. Non-member alumni and other guests: $40 per person. Current Wharton West Trek students: $10 per person. Registrations after 4:00pm Tuesday, January 5th an extra $10 per ticket, if available. Cancellations after 4:00pm Tuesday, January 5th at the discretion of the WCNC. No charge for Wharton Club Gold Ticket Members (but remember as always to register via the above 'Register Online' link.)
Mobile Payment Series Mobile Payments is one of the hottest industries globally today. The advent of electronic money movement, coupled with the ubiquity of mobile handsets in the market promises convergence of two industries which will lead to a transformation in certain segments of the financial services space. Mobile Payments is attracting professionals from divergent industries… from experts in technology to wireless and handset providers to microfinance, alternative payments and banking professionals. Some people claim that the intersection of mobile and finance has already, and will continue to, transform people’s lives, change the way business is conducted, and significantly impact GDP growth on a global scale. The industry is nascent, offering the opportunity for new innovations. It is also complex, providing challenges around regulatory constraints, consumer adoption, ecosystem relationships, and business models.
The goals of the Mobile Payments Series are three-fold: 1. To provide an overview of this market to Wharton and Harvard alumni as well as other Bay Area professionals interested in learning about this industry; 2. To bridge the gap between the innovations occurring abroad and the U.S.; and 3. To provide a opportunity for networking and future innovation in this area.
In our first 2 events, we covered the basics of the Mobile Financial Services Industry globally and discussed the dynamics of the US market with respect to Mobile Money. In this 3rd event, we explore whether mobile money will be able to replace cash in the “last mile” in emerging markets with cash-based economies.
Event #3:
mPesa in Kenya has achieved over 8 million users in two years and is viewed as one of the most successful mobile payments case studies. SmartMoney in the Philippines launched their services over nine years ago and has seen over 8 million active users for remote topup, but less than 10,000 for card adoption. With G-Cash, few merchants are accepting mobile payments at their retail stores. In these and other mobile money transfer markets, mobile operators are investing significantly in the cash out agent network or partnering with those who have the network since customers are converting their mobile money transfers back to cash for final use in retail stores and bill payment. For cash-based markets with little to no financial infrastructure, each new ATM cost thousands of dollars and every new agent network may require up to 60% transaction revenues to set up and maintain. If consumers do not adopt electronic (mobile money) forms of payments at retail and for bill payment, the business models of mobile money systems may ultimately not realize the business gains that were expected. The question remains whether, in cash-based markets, mobile payments will be adopted by consumers and merchants for the “last mile” in lieu of cash.
Panelists Include:
Thor Hauge, Vice President, Digital Ventures at Western Union International
Active business execution on the front line of emerging disruptive communication markets for the past 18 years has given Mr. Hauge a keen sense for value creation at the earliest stages in commercialization.
Committing to the idea of sustainability in market, 1997 marked the year Mr. Hauge officially entered the mobile communications marketplace. Mr. Hauge joined VoiceStream Wireless to launch the second commercial GSM network in the United States, establishing the Major and Government Accounts program in market.
In 2000, Mr. Hauge joined Nokia Ventures Organization to co-create a unique innovation model that would create strategic growth options through seed stage investments in start-up companies.
Mr. Hauge joined Western Union International in August 2009 as Vice President of Digital Ventures, head of global sales for Mobile Money Transfer.
Toffene B. Kama, President, WillStream, a mobile money initiative for better usage of remittance funds in emerging markets
Toffene combines 10 years experience in the telco payment industry (HP, Alcatel-Lucent, Redknee) with a unique understanding of the mobile money dynamics in low or irregular income markets, specifically in Africa where he grew up. Toffene received a master's degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from INPG (Grenoble's Polytechnic Institute, France), complemented by the Harvard Business School PLD (2008-2009) where the WillStream initiative was first conceived.
Benjamin Lyon, Executive Director of Frontline SMS: Credit
Benjamin Lyon is Founder and Executive Director of FrontlineSMS:Credit, an initiative of the non-profit Kiwanja Foundation that aims to bring formal financial services to the 'last mile' in 160 characters or less. Ben received a B.A. in Economics & International Studies from Rhodes College, where he specialized in informal economics and microfinance."
Menekse Gencer, Founder of mPay Connect: Mobile Payments Consulting Firm
Menekse Gencer founded mPay Connect, a consulting service for clients interested in launching mobile payments. mPay Connect specializes in providing assistance in Strategy, Business Development and Product Planning. Prior to founding mPay Connect, Menekse led PayPal Mobile’s Business Development efforts for North America. During this time, she secured PayPal’s first Mobile Network Operator deal and launched PayPal Send Money on Sprint’s mobile wallet.
mPay Connect’s roster of clients includes Citigroup/SKTelecom and their joint venture mobile banking platform, Wells Fargo, a prepaid mobile network operator whose customer base is unbanked, and EARN, a non-profit catering to the under-banked.
Menekse began her career consulting to mobile network operators in Europe and later worked with high tech companies in Silicon Valley, followed by global financial institutions. With the convergence of these three industries for Mobile Financial Services, she is able to draw on her sixteen years of experience to provide unique perspectives around this complex ecosystem.
Menekse has an MBA from Wharton and a BA from Harvard University with expertise in high tech, wireless, and financial services industries and was previously featured on the cover of Fortune Small Business Magazine. She is the founder of the Mobile Payments Series initiative in San Francisco/Silicon Valley with Harvard Business School and Wharton MBA Alumni Clubs and a speaker at Money Mobile Transfer conferences abroad. She is also a board member of Mobile Money Africa. She assists startups, think tanks, and policy groups/regulators with mobile payments education and strategic advice to spur innovation and to drive the market forward.
