Egyptian Company Launches World’s First E-Payment Gateway With 0% Fees

Vapulus, a Cairo-based startup that finds tech solutions for financial problems, launched what they claim to be the world’s first gateway for e-payments that won’t be taking commission on every transaction or month.

The official launch follows its BETA version by almost a year, in which Vapulus gained the trust of more than 450 e-commerce platforms and companies across 14 countries in the MENA region. In three years, Vapulus aspires to be float amongst fintech’s global competitors.

“The fee-based revenue model will eventually die,” says Vapulus’ Co-founder Abdel-Rahman El-Shaarawy. “Any company that relies on these fees for its revenues will not survive the game.” E-payment gateways around the world charge up to 2.9% on each transaction and have generated revenues of $63 billion in 2018 alone. However, the future of e-payment faces the challenges of free technologies such as payment using crypto currency and electronic clearing services (ECS) provided by Central Banks, forcing the shift to other sources of income for e-payment.

Furthermore, El-Shaarawy explains that the move to abolish fees plays a central role in enabling SMEs to enter the e-commerce markets, thus providing many jobs and reducing rates of unemployment in emerging-economy countries, which Vapulus targets; thus, achieving social and economic justice and in line with UNDP’s SDGs.

Main image courtesy of REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany.