You can take care of everything from currency exchange to payment overseas with a single app.
Kim Hyeong-u, head of Travel Wallet, said this in a recent written interview with ChosunBiz.
Many people travel abroad during the summer vacation season. In the past, to eat or shop overseas, you had to exchange money at a bank and carry cash. Paying by card incurred fees.
Travel Wallet introduced a foreign currency prepaid top-up card to solve these inconveniences. Kim said, "You can top up money at the real-time exchange rate anytime, anywhere and pay overseas like a regular card," adding, "Anyone can freely send money across the borders of countries and currency."
◇Annoying dollar exchange… solved with one app
Kim worked as a fund manager at Samsung Asset Management before founding Travel Wallet in 2017. Its flagship service is Travel Pay. For example, if you are going on a business trip to the United States, you can use the smartphone app to top up dollars for the desired amount at the real-time exchange rate. You can also get a physical card issued at GS25 convenience store ATMs. The payment fee is 0 won. As for exchange fees, the dollar, euro, and yen are free, while other currency is 0.5–2.5%.
As of Apr. this year, Travel Wallet has issued 9.5 million cards, with an accumulated transaction amount of 9.4 trillion won. You can use 46 currency at more than 100 million Visa merchants worldwide. Kim explained, "The key is that customers don't have to worry about the complicated procedures and expense structures that arise in the exchange or payment process."
The countries where Travel Wallet is used most are Japan, the United States, Vietnam, Thailand, and Europe. Kim said, "As overseas travel becomes mainstream, payment methods are shifting from cash-centered to cards and mobile," adding, "Beyond simply lowering fees, I think it is important to make foreign exchange transactions more transparent and convenient."
◇Aiming to list by 2027… "Providing a better financial experience"
Travel Wallet provides services based on the cloud and its own foreign exchange system. Kim said, "Traditional financial firms had no choice but to incur high costs because they had to go through multiple institutions in the process of overseas payments and exchanges," adding, "Travel Wallet can reduce unnecessary intermediaries, automate exchange, payment, and settlement, and offer services to customers at lower cost."
Travel Wallet received early investment from the Seoul National University Holdings in Jun. 2018. The following year, it also went through ups and downs as the market shrank with fewer overseas visits due to COVID-19. Kim said, "Rather than just enduring the period, we focused on technology development and upgrading the service to prepare for when the market reopened."
Travel Wallet posted 70.6 billion won in revenue last year. It earns revenue from platform ads or provides foreign exchange and payment solutions to financial firms and corporations. It is selecting an underwriter with the goal of an initial public offering (IPO) by 2027. Because trust is crucial in finance, it plans to build a transparent management system and enhance corporate value.
Kim said, "When we first launched the service, you had to go to a bank to exchange money before going abroad, and payment fees were taken for granted," adding, "Now, free exchange and zero payment fees have become the market's basic competitiveness." He emphasized, "In the end, what matters is providing a better financial experience and making foreign exchange transactions transparent."