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Fundamo's shareholders include Venfin, Sanlam and Marc Shuttleworth's HBD Venture Capital.
Fundamo business development head Aletha Ling says the industry has matured to the point where the big players - banks and mobile operators - are looking at doing something in the mobile transaction and payment space and starting to commit to these technologies.
Fundamo and Accenture will formally launch their mobile-wallet solution at the upcoming 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona from February 11 to 14. Their target market consists of mobile operators around the world, of which there are roughly 700 in total.
A mobile wallet, Ling says, is a fully functional, secure account from which the consumer can transact using a mobile phone interface. The consumer can use their phone to transact and get information such as account balances. To complete the package, the mobile operators could offer consumers a linked, branded debit card for use in ATMs.
A key application, particularly in the developing world, is the remittance of funds between different markets: "This is really top of mind in the industry," Ling says.
Given the ubiquitous nature of the mobile phone - the latest figures show there are 3.3 billion mobile subscribers around the world - and the willingness that consumers have shown in its adoption, Ling says no other device lends itself to being a transactional tool in quite the same way.
So far, Fundamo operates in South Africa, Bahrain, Nigeria, Zambia, the DRC, and most recently found the right partners in Brazil and Pakistan, Ling said. It also concluded a deal with Nasdaq-listed S1 last year, giving it a foothold into the American market.
She says the company has also received a significant interest out of Latin America and Europe, Spain in particular.
The company's existing customers - who are happy to publicise the relationship, some prefer not to for competitive reasons - include MTN Banking, Capitec Bank, Standard Bank, Kanderlane Group, Nonoo Group in Bahrain and Celpay in Zambia and the DRC.
Ling said there were a number of other exciting developments on the cards or in their early stages.
Being a private company, Fundamo does not disclose revenue numbers. But, it has around 50 staff members operating out of its Cape Town offices.
Ling says as a private company that's doing exciting things, it does tend to attract good people, but the market is so specialised that it is also not easy to find people with the right experience.
The relationship with Accenture should also help with the transfer of skills to give it as big a resource pool as possible, with people on the ground in the various countries of operation, she said.
Ling founded highly respected software development house Software Futures, growing it into a 300-person company within three years, before selling this to Computer Configuration Holdings (CCH), which she ultimately became CEO of. When CCH was subsequently acquired by MGX, she held various board positions before taking a sabbatical to sail around the world in 2004.
She joined Fundamo in 2006 and sounds invigorated by the challenge of finding and growing the company's products in new markets.
- Fin24
