Qash, a Dutch financial inclusion startup has launched in Colombia with a stablecoin linked credit card aimed at volatile economies.
The startup, funded by Antler by €300,000 split across two tranches, has partnered with Visa for their first product, a self-custodial stablecoin wallet linked to USDC, with the goal of bridging the gap between unstable local currency and the US dollar.
Boris Spiwak, Qash co-founder told Finextra: “We are democratising US dollar finances. The wealthy in Latin America, they've always kept their Miami bank account, their offshore bank account, their dollars abroad. But there's a lot of people, your typical lawyer, doctor, that are highly educated, they have good incomes, they have some savings. They'd like to have more financial options and hard currency options and are thinking of a plan B abroad, but they don't meet the high minimum deposit requirements that you need to open an offshore account.”
Spiwak and his co-founder Gerson Lynch are from Venezuela and Suriname respectively and say their life experience of unstable economies and hyperinflation inspired their idea.
Spiwak added: “It's just always been on my mind, ever since I was a kid, is the ability of a government to really damage the financial life of a population and of an individual.”
They have an ambitious products roadmap, with Spiwak telling Finextra they plan to launch a digital dollar investment account in the first quarter of 2025 which would allow investments in tokenised securities, US government bonds, tokenised treasuries, and tokenised ETFs. Additionally, Spiwak said they are finalising a banking-as-a-service partnership with a US bank, which they hope to launch next year.
He said: “That's going to allow us to introduce real dollar accounts with FDIC insurance at a real US bank. We believe that's a better product, a more differentiated product, even though it's solving a lot of the same problems, it's a more unique product that doesn't exist in the market right now.”
Lynch and Spiwak came up with the idea during a two month Antler entrepreneur residency earlier in 2024. Spiwak said they chose Colombia for their launch in part due to the country’s significant currency devaluation and macro political instability.
The startup has 1000 people on their waiting list, and users can have access to a digital card or can opt for a physical card. Spiwak described the user experience: “This product is aimed at people that are not crypto native. So a lot of the things around the wallet and the key, it's meant to work from the users point of view. It will look and feel just like any neobank app.”
RJ Schuurs, partner at Antler, commented: “Qash is an example of a fintech startup driven by a clear social purpose. There is a large business opportunity in Latin America - the world’s fastest growing fintech market - which is also going to improve life for people facing crippling domestic financial instability. I’m delighted to have supported Boris and Gerson from day zero of their growth journey.”