Dubai, UAE-based Mamo Pay, launched last year as a peer-to-peer payments app on Tuesday (April 7) raised $1.5 million in a seed funding round led by Global Founders Capital (GFC) with participation from Global Ventures, VentureSouq, MSA Capital, Dubai Angel Investors (DAI), 500 Startups and a few angel investors.

Mamo Pay was founded by former Google employees Mohammad El Saadi, Asim Janjua, and Imad Gharazeddine last year. The startup through its mobile app lets users transfer payments to family, friends and businesses without charging any transactional fee.

Talking about the unique proposition of Mamo pay, Mohammad El Saadi in a statement said,

“Mamo Pay not only increases speed but removes all of the hassle associated with banking in the Mena region”,

“In our survey, we found that 87 per cent of regional respondents had challenges with money transfers and 89 per cent were unhappy with the existing solutions available to them.”

To simplify transactions for its users, Mamo pay works with regulators to allow users to make payments using recipients’ phone numbers or email addresses only, unlike the traditional fintech platforms which require additional details such as IBAN numbers etc.

Further adding more details about Mamo Pay, El Saadi said,

“We’re excited to see how our platform streamlines money transfers across financial services. Our vision is for Mamo Pay to simplify everything from sending money quickly, to splitting a bill at a restaurant, to speeding up payments for SMEs and entrepreneurs,”

The startup aims to eliminate the detour for low-income individuals who partly forms the cash-based economy of the UAE. In the words of Asma Alyamani, head of product at Mamo Pay in the statement,

“Low-income workers in the region often have two options: getting paid in cash, which is inefficient and potentially insecure, or relying on an exchange company to distribute their salary on their behalf, which is expensive. Mamo Pay will eliminate this problem for the region’s low-income community,”

Sunele Gokhale, founding partner at VentureSouq affirmed Mamo Pay as an avenue contributing towards UAE’s drive of becoming a centre of innovation,

“In keeping in line with the UAE’s drive to continue to be a centre of innovation, we are excited about Mamo Pay’s vision of building a fintech platform that will enhance the lives of people and businesses in the Mena region.”

Mamo Pay is currently testing on Android in run-up to launch this year, followed by iOS and web versions.