Standout Players in the FinTech Revolution Contrib
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NetworkNewsWire Editorial Coverage: Busily upending mainstream banking and lending, the FinTech market is revolutionizing core components of the finance industry, and one of the standout benefits of this FinTech revolution is that entrepreneurs, small-business owners and high-risk enterprises have unprecedented access to the investment capital and financial services they need. Notable players in this disruptive, burgeoning market include entities like Global Payout, Inc. (OTC: GOHE) (GOHE Profile), which, through its MoneyTrac Technology, Inc. subsidiary, offers payment solutions to high-risk industries such as cannabis. Global Payout is joined by other companies disrupting the financial side of marijuana, including MassRoots, Inc. (OTC: MSRT), mCig, Inc. (OTC: MCIG) and Glance Technologies, Inc. (OTC: GLNNF) (CSE: GET), as well as the activities of companies like Mentor Capital, Inc. (OTC: MNTR).
FinTech is a relatively young but burgeoning market, using technology to disrupt traditional financial services rather than to serve them. This disruptive presence is important for many reasons. For one, it is breaking the chokehold of banks and other financial institutions—which have traditionally eschewed making small loans with low margins—giving entrepreneurs and small businesses access to the capital they need to get their companies off the ground or grow their existing enterprises. The FinTech uprising also provides access to other lending options and streamlines the application process in ways that traditional financial institutions cannot.
The key benefits of the FinTech industry are improved accessibility to lending options and an accelerated application process for businesses and individual consumers, and traditional banks and other financial institutions are feeling the effects. A recent executive summary on global FinTech released by PwC indicates that 30 percent of consumers intend to increase their usage of nontraditional financial services providers during 2017, while only 39 percent planned to continue using traditional financial services providers.1
In the business realm, the benefits of FinTech are being keenly felt. In addition to gaining easier access to capital, companies have been enabled, through the FinTech movement, to purchase complicated financial software solutions and services they could never have afforded in the past that would have once required an entire in-house IT team to operate.
As a provider of next-gen B2B solutions for the automation of international funds transfer, billing, payments and invoicing processes, Global Payout (GOHE) recognizes the potential of FinTech and its increasing degrees of applicability.
In a recent corporate interview (http://nnw.fm/x9OSy), Global Payout CEO James Hancock discussed assets of the company’s Global Reserve Platform (GRP), including its provisions for blockchain technology within virtual currency markets; its current ability to adopt 26 foreign languages; its capability to perform currency exchanges across the globe; and its KYC compliance for all account holders and merchants.
While Global Payout is chiefly focused on logistics and shipping, international travel companies, banks and small-to-medium-sized businesses, the company is taking advantage of increased consumer demand for FinTech and has positioned its MoneyTrac subsidiary to provide a full-service solution for alternative banking and electronic financial solutions for companies in high-risk industries such as cannabis and cryptocurrency.
“We also have negotiations with commercial banks, the cannabis industry and cryptocurrency that we’ll probably be talking more about,” Hancock stated in the aforementioned interview. “There’s a lot going on and we need to focus on the logistics side, but there are other opportunities that we’re excited about.”
One of these opportunities blossomed into fruition earlier this month when MoneyTrac signed a letter of intent (LOI) with BlazeNow, Inc., an advertising and data collection platform that NY Daily News once called the Yelp of the marijuana industry (http://nnw.fm/eurE5). The intention of the LOI is to create a joint-venture partnership that enables MoneyTrac and BlazeNow to merge their industry-specific resources to substantially grow both brands as they serve the marijuana industry.
MoneyTrac also recently partnered with H Smart Inc., a division of Marijuana Company of America, that will enable MoneyTrac Technology to indirectly enter the multibillion-dollar cannabidiol (CBD) market (http://nnw.fm/2lvKq). H Smart, a developer and distributor of advanced wellness and CBD products, will profit from the use of technology offered through MoneyTrac to pay commissions for its affiliates. It is anticipated that this agreement will create significant revenue for MoneyTrac that will be realized during the current fiscal quarter.
MoneyTrac’s technology enables its clients to access their financial information from anywhere in the world, in addition to providing tracking and compliance to help them manage and control the flow of all revenue through their business.
Because the broader marijuana industry is lacking in banking options, the potential of MoneyTrac’s FinTech solutions are underscored by other cannabis FinTech players, such as MassRoots, Inc. (MSRT), which caters to more than one million registered users through mobile applications that help them make informed marijuana purchasing decisions. MassRoots is empowering cannabis-related businesses through its MassRoots Retail compliance and point-of-sale system to streamline their retail operations and manage their compliance reporting to state regulators. Boasting a significant market share of medical marijuana patients within certain markets and having over 25,000 shareholders, MassRoots is uniquely positioned to serve the growing cannabis market.
Originating as a vaporizer manufacturer, mCig. Inc. (MCIG) has since evolved into a large-scale, full-service cannabis cultivation construction company and, more recently, has forayed into the technology space. In August, mCig announced the expansion of its offerings to include merchant processing services for cannabis businesses, which are currently sorely underserved in this area as they do not presently have access to traditional banking options because of federal restrictions. Through a partnership with an experienced merchant provider and through the creation of a new entity, mCig aims to offer a seamless, comprehensive and secure payment solution for marijuana businesses and dispensaries.
Another FinTech player now catering to the cannabis industry is Glance Technologies, Inc. (GLNNF). The owner and operator of Glance Pay, a streamlined payment system transforming the way smartphone users make purchasing decisions and interact with merchants, Glance Technologies has entered into significant licensing agreements to access the cannabis industry through its partially owned subsidiary Cannapay Financial. Cannapay Financial combines traditional financial offerings with advanced technology to offer digital and financial services to legal cannabis businesses. Currently, Cannapay Financial has two apps in development that leverage the company’s GlancePay mobile payment system and are available for international licensing: Cannapay, which is a mobile-to-mobile payment system for the marijuana industry; and SuperDope Delivery, which is an app for mobile ordering and cannabis delivery.
In August, Glance Technologies announced a strategy for the development and acquisition of cannabis brands through Cannapay Financial, to be distributed internationally through its mobile payment apps. One component of the strategy is to seek successful cannabis business participants to license the company’s technology in other countries, and a second component is to use the company’s apps to promote awareness of emerging marijuana brands in jurisdictions where cannabis is legal or is in the process of being legalized. Cannapay Financial also recently entered into an agreement to acquire the rights to a package of holistic Ayurveda formulas intended to treat various ailments and has agreed to purchase all intellectual property relating to the creation, production and manufacturing of these products. The company has further purchased the rights to blend the product with cannabis to create a new product line.
The great need of alternative forms of funding for cannabis businesses is evidenced in the activities of companies like Mentor Capital, Inc. (MNTR), which specializes in assisting marijuana companies in meeting their liquidity and financial objectives and in helping to incubate private cannabis companies. Mentor Capital provides a low-cost option for leading marijuana companies that are attempting to enter the public market and also offers liquidity and support to help ensure those entities are prepared to make the transition.
The future of the FinTech industry seems to be a very bright one indeed, and many new technologies and startups are anticipated to reach maturity by the year 2020. Within this disruptive market, the named players are ones to watch as they change the financial landscape of the marijuana industry.
Editorial Sources:
1) PwC.com: http://nnw.fm/XR7Fn
2) Office of the Comptroller of the Currency: http://nnw.fm/nrsM0
3) Zacks: http://nnw.fm/eQJu7
For more information on Global Payout, Inc., please visit Global Payout (GOHE)
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