Invest in Moneco (YC S22)

1. Africa and Europe, a long and complicated shared history

Europe and Africa share centuries of history. Initially, Europeans were looking for commodities to exchange in Africa, and then they settled strategic trading posts for their ships on the route to Asia.

Later on, Africa became a priority for Europe which triggered the beginning of colonization.

Beyond territorial discovery, Europeans imposed their language, religion, culture, and more, which created an enduring bond between both continents.

Because of this shared history and colonization, millions of Africans migrated to Europe, mostly to the lands of their former colonizers.

1.1 MIGRATION PATTERNS BETWEEN EUROPE AND AFRICA

Presence of Africans in Europe

Today, there are about 25m Africans living in Europe, 75% of them are gathered in 4 countries : France, UK, Spain and Italy.

The map is interactive, you can click on the link

Origins

When looking at their country of origin, we see that North Africa is by far the most represented diaspora in Europe, with about 2/3 of Africans in Europe coming from North Africa (ie, former French colonies).

Current migration patterns

Today, between 600,000 and 1 million Africans migrate to Europe every year. Due to Brexit, the UK and Europe now operate within their own financial ecosystems and cannot serve each other. Given this legal constraint, we have decided to focus our efforts on Europe since it hosts more Africans (about 85%), and more of the french speaking diaspora.

France is leading the way with about 40% of the total number of Africans in Europe residing there (due to its colonial past), while Spain and Italy have about 25% of the total (due to their geographical proximity with Africa). With these 3 countries, we target about 65% of the total number of Africans in Europe.

The map is interactive, you can click on the link

1.2 THE ROLE OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA IN EUROPE AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO EUROPEAN SUCCESS

As detailed in the video, numerous Africans in Europe are top performers in their fields and are highly recognized by society. Public figures in industries such as sports, music, cinema, fashion and business include many Africans

Beyond famous African public figures, diverse economic sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, tourism, and transportation are highly reliant on Africans.

2. But despite their important role in Europe, Africans still remain highly underserved in terms of financial services

3. That's why we have created Moneco, the first neobank entirely dedicated to Africans

What is Moneco ?

The African diaspora is mostly composed of workers, students and housewives. They live in communities in major cities across Europe and maintain strong ties with their countries of origin.

Africans in Africa looking for international accounts can be quite diverse. They include families of the diaspora who wish to receive money in strong currencies (to hedge against inflation), tourists who need international cards, freelancers, and small businesses that make international purchases, among others.

Acquisition Strategy

From an acquisition perspective, we primarily focus on the diasporas in Europe, as they require EUR accounts for their day-to-day transactions. However, the diaspora maintains connections with Africans in Africa through remittances, presenting an opportunity for us. So our goal is to capture unbanked Africans in Africa through remittance channels, and have both the sender and the receiver in the same ecosystem.

From a more granular perspective, our approach is:

1. Target African migrants even before they leave Africa for Europe by being their migration companion (we have a free tool on our website that helps migrant understand the admin procedures more easily)
2. Target Africans in Europe with a Neobank enabling them to easily open a bank account and to send money back home at the best price.
3. New/future migrants are targeted with an easy account opening offering
4. Established migrants are targeted with a competitive remittance offering
5. Target Africans in Africa that receive remittances through traditional channels

Remittances from France/Spain/Italy to French Speaking Africa

This map shows formal remittances from our 3 main target markets in Europe. Volumes are important, and those figures do not even account for the huge chunk of the market which is done through informal means. Experts estimate that the total volumes of remittances to Africa actually is twice the figure that the World Bank reports.

The map is interactive, you can click on the link

Unbanked in Africa

This map shows the level of financial inclusion in french speaking Africa (people that currently receive remittances from Moneco). Remittances reception is our acquisition channel and a lot of remittance beneficiaries have already opened a Moneco account.

The map is interactive, you can click on the link

4. Traction

Financial licence

We have obtained our licence from the French Regulator (considered as the most strict in Europe) in October of 2023. Our bank partner is BPCE Group (“Banque Populaire & Caisse d’Epargne”), which is the second largest financial institution in France and considered as a systemic institution at an European scale (too big to fail).

Early adoption

We have launched a private beta at the end of February 2024 and have been officially live since mid April. Most of our acquisition has been organic, but we have also done a few influencer campaigns that have worked well. Now, we are working on scaling our growth engine, by testing a lot of acquisition channels (partnerships with governmental institutions in Africa and Europe, street marketing, referral program, etc.).