Moneytun Inc, founded in 2006 specializes in offering its money transfer services to members of the Russian and Armenian communities in the United States. Moneytun provides money transfer services that are easy, quick, and dependable to more than 25 countries around the world, with over 200,000 payment locations in those countries.
We spoke with Arthur Avetisian, Founder/CEO at Moneytun about the company's goal, digitization of remittance, and the impact of Machnet on its growth.
What drove you to start Moneytun?
Moneytun was founded with the intention of catering to an underserved market of Armenian-American customers by putting the customer first and offering competitively priced money transfer services. In the early 2000s, there were only two money transfer service providers in Armenia, the large incumbants, capable of handling large wire transfers and remittances. The price of remittance was very high - people were paying upto 10% of their payments as fees.
Seeing the need for an affordable service, Moneytun entered the business and started promoting its services. Currently, Moneytun is the largest provider for the US-to-Armenia corridor because of competitive prices and excellent customer service. MoneyGram’s pricing is now nowhere close to what they were before.
Our long-term goal is to empower Armenians all over the world to be able to remit funds to each other and their homeland with ease and confidence.
How has Machnet helped you build Moneytun?
We entered into a partnership with Machnet to broaden our audience and geographic presence. For the development of our application, we needed internet-based technologies and a command and control hub that could handle all of the necessary back-end support.
Moneytun got exactly what it was seeking after partnering with Machnet- A deployable, adaptable system that can be customized, expanded, connected to the core, and connected to additional partners if necessary.
Machnet offered a robust and compliant online infrastructure to Moneytun, which we could connect to our core technology via specialized APIs. We have included payment processing gateways and anti-fraud solutions. Moreover, we have utilized and extensively customized almost every component of the software. Machnet assisted us in customizing and producing the product as we had envisioned.
What do you like the most about Machnet?
The fact that Machnet speaks my language and understands what I am trying to say is something I appreciate. In terms of the technical component, I continue to provide them with difficult challenges, but they continually come back to me with answers that make my life easier.
The most important thing is that there is a team that is aware of the requirements and that this team is composed of professionals who can determine how to adjust the system.
What sets you apart in the market?
The bigger companies are unable to engage on a personal level, whereas we can do so because we live in a community and work with people. I provide customer service and handle all of the other tasks with the help of my team, but what I'm really trying to get across is that I've been actively involved from the very beginning and have worked in every department, from the front lines to the back offices.
Therefore, we are in charge of transaction-by-transaction flow and customer service from A to Z. Because we offer a specialized service, it sets us apart from other providers.
Armenia was once mostly dependent on Moneygram, a US-centric company. We, on the other hand, provide Armenian-centric services. We want to replicate this same quality of service in different markets. We now aim to reach out to nations like Mexico, the Philippines, and Vietnam and offer services in their native languages while re-creating the same blueprint that we accomplished with the Armenian.
How have things changed for you after partnering with Machnet?
The dynamic of what Moneytun has been doing has radically changed after partnering with Machnet. It has completely changed the focus of my team as well as myself, and it completely changed the direction we're going right now. It opened up so many opportunities and possibilities for us to explore. We are a community-based remittance company, and we are evolving to become multi state and multi communities.
How do you perceive Moneytun’s journey in terms of its growth and customer success?
We are observing great success in our business; it is progressing slowly, but that's how we roll; we are taking things slowly, but I can tell that our customers are satisfied with our services from the reviews they are leaving on Facebook. We have a team that regularly communicates with them on Facebook and other social media channels. Simply put, fewer people visit our offices now.
Within a year, 20% of our total customer value has essentially moved online, which is positive. Our web traffic keeps growing. From 2021 to 2022, our user transactions have increased by 47%. We used to be a brick-and-mortar operation but now with the partnership with Machnet’s API, we have been able to significantly grow and build our online presence.
We have been in the remittance space for a while—15 years— and we finally can start seeing revenue growth. Digitization in remittance with focused on localized Armenian Diapora has let us this far. We had developed our services and got recognition in the community and industry; we had reached a certain saturation point of walk-in customers and number of transactions. Then, we went digital, moved our business online, and that grew 20% more clients from elsewhere and this is just the beginning.
Any last words?
There are around 10 million Armenians worldwide, only 2 million of whom reside in Armenia itself. The remaining 8 million are therefore dispersed. A significant number of Armenians are not only in France but also in other parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. So, wherever they are, we want to develop a product that would give them the power of finance.
