A new financial technology firm in the United Arab Emirates is set to disrupt the traditional and conventional methods of transferring money by launching a new app called bridg, which allows parties to transfer cash from one individual to the other using only Bluetooth technology and without the need for internet connectivity, Forbes reports.
The new mobile payment app Bridg was developed by Moussa Beidas and Nadim Jarudi, both based in the UAE. According to the payment app developers, Bridg makes it possible to transfer money from one smartphone to the other using only Bluetooth. But only one of the smartphones need to be internet-enabled and not both to make the transaction go through.
With nearly 80.6% of the UAE population using mobile phones, many in areas with poor internet connection could easily use Bridg to make or receive payments insofar one of the participating phones is connected to the internet. This makes the use of Bluetooth the greatest asset that Bridg is using to meet the mobile payment needs of people in the UAE.
Beidas made it clear that his company developed Bridg to meet the yearnings of the people of UAE since western payment solutions can rarely function well to meet the needs of users in developing markets. “Purpose-built technology has to be implemented in order to clearly answer a need,” he said.
With only 54 financial technology organizations in north Africa and the Middle East, Beidas noted that many investors have not yet come to trust in the viability of fintech companies, choosing rather to explore familiar grounds such as e-commerce and on-demand businesses. But fintech is much more narrowed down with long-term objective rewards.
Bridg was started two years ago but the mobile payment app product launched six months ago in Dubai.
“A big selling point for us is that our platform works offline, just like cash, which makes us more reliable than any other digital alternative,” Beidas explained. “We are taking our patent pending technology and applying it to challenges unique to each developing market.”
To use the app service, a customer will transfer money from his bank accounts onto the Bridg app on his smartphone; and then using a token, the money can be transferred to other persons using only Bluetooth. The app acts like a digital wallet to keep, save and spend or transfer cash to other merchants.
Last year, Bridg was the only payment technology developed in Arab to feature at The Next Web conference which held in Amsterdam. The annual conference is usually an exhibition of technological innovations.