Ask a fintech founder: Abdul Abdulkerimov, Paysend

Abdul Abdulkerimov starts his mornings with a tai chi practice in Kensington Gardens, followed by a Chinese tea ceremony at his home in London and then delving into philosophy books all before 8 a.m. The fintech founder behind Paysend, an app where you can send fast international money transfers using your bank card, your bank account or simply your mobile number, has a surprisingly contemplative nature for an engineer.

One word that describes his life as an entrepreneur?

"Believe. Believe in yourself, believe everything is possible. When you believe, you empower other people around you," he said. It's a mindset that has served him well as a serial entrepreneur in the fintech space.

Here, we chat with Abdulkerimov about simplifying cross-border money movement for millions around the world, working with Visa and the secret to solving the complexity of payments.

What is your elevator pitch for Paysend, and your typical customer experience?

Abdulkerimov: It's very simple, we are simplifying global cross-border money movement. We have a consumer-direct service where you download our app and you can send money to an account, to wallets, to any card. We also provide access to enterprises to serve their end customers. They can design the customer experience for their clients, so they can choose the destination, the corridor, the currencies, and they can track all the KYC, sanctions screening, etc. These are two ways you can access services from Paysend.

What problem were you trying to solve when you decided to launch Paysend?

Abdulkerimov: The question I asked myself at the time was, 'What are the fundamental problems customers are facing whenever they're dealing with cross-border payments?' The answer is three-fold: Time, cost, and complexity. We have all this data: 2.26 days for a typical international money transfer or 6 percent average cost [in fees] and in terms of complexity, it's like you are building a cosmic aerospace ship. We decided that the cost should be inclusive, not restrictive, and we wanted to create a simple customer experience where ordinary people can use it without struggle. That was our concept: time, cost, barriers, instant, inclusive, simple.

What makes you unique from your competitors?

Abdulkerimov: We are the company that first built the interoperability of the three major networks, literally linking all the cardholders together. We have pioneered card-to-card money transfers, which are cross-border transfers where you can send money using your card. Third, we are the biggest digital network globally that has more than 10 billion endpoints.

How are you working with Visa to help you grow your business?

Abdulkerimov: Visa is one of our key partners. We built this so-called enablement, moving money to the cards, and we worked together to educate the banks and end consumers about how it worked. That was in 2017, and now we are in this very strategic relationship. Using the strength of Visa, all the network capabilities that Visa has to offer, and the innovative technology solution that Paysend provides is very complimentary in terms of providing the best services to clients. It's an exciting team with a great attitude. We're definitely grateful to Visa for working together.

What's one thing you wish you knew when you started Paysend?

Abdulkerimov: There's nothing I wish I knew. What is an entrepreneur's journey? It's always navigating through the unknown. What would happen if everyone knew everything about the future? What would change? Nothing. Maybe you wouldn't start your business at all. And you would end up in a completely different place. The beauty of being an entrepreneur is this journey that navigates through the unknown and having this attitude and mindset that drives you to create and overcome doubt that you're making the way forward.

What does success look like for you?

Abdulkerimov: If you're talking about a company's success, it's somehow reflected in numbers, but ultimately success is the positive impact that a company can have on its customers, the shareholders, to the environment, to the partners. And personally, for myself, these are the same. What we are doing here as a company and my personal goal is the positive impact I can create for this world.

What excites you about the future of payments?

Abdulkerimov: What I'm most excited about is the user experience. It is the same as what's happening today when you use Tap to Pay with Visa. It's amazing. You just pay, and boom, it's complete. Tomorrow, it may even happen without devices. But today, we have a fundamental problem to solve, which is digital identity. If we solve the problem of digital identity, you don't have this risk, you protect everyone. All this complexity happens because we want to literally protect 99.9 percent of genuine customers from .0001 percent of fraudsters. Imagine what would happen with every single money movement interaction if we have the simplicity without the complexity?

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