The Story of Airfox - Of Pivots and Blockchains
“Forty percent of Brazil’s population is entirely a cash-based economy, but the majority of them have a smartphone,” said Co-Founder and CEO of Airfox (and Brazil native) Victor Santos. “Even though they do not have a bank account, they can use their phone as a way to gain access to capital.”
Airfox is providing low-income, cash-based economies with access to financial services, and microloans through mobile devices. Their technology is divided into three distinct features: data science, mobile, and blockchain.
“We’re taking the concept of using your mobile phone as a wallet and transforming it to enable users to make payments on the blockchain,” said Santos. “As they are using the app, we start to gather data from the smartphone, and then say ‘Hey, you qualify for a microloan.’ From there, we will bucket the user based on their risk rating of either high, medium, or low.”
The company’s current target market is Brazil, and they have been working closely with the government regulatory agencies in the country to help bring a technological boost to their boleto payment system, which is the most common method of transaction for low-income neighborhoods in the country. Through the Airfox app, users fill out a boleto stamp and make deposits to their account, as opposed to filling out a piece of paper and standing in line at a local office.
Through their app, users can also pay their bills and manage their spending similar to any mobile banking app. However, the app is decentralized and utilizes the Ethereum blockchain to conduct transactions. It also adds an extra layer of security due to the blockchain’s encrypted nature.
Airfox is a company that is well-known within Boston tech’s blockchain sector and is the first venture-backed startup in Boston to successfully raise an Initial Coin Offering (ICO). While what the company is doing with its technology is intriguing, the story of how they came to be is equally impressive.
https://venturefizz.com/blog/airfox-profile
