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Home / Business / Personal Finance

Kiwi digital wallet provider Dosh raises $5m, plans to compete with banks

Tamsyn Parker
By Tamsyn Parker
Business Editor·NZ Herald·
17 Mar, 2022 12:00 AM5 mins to read

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James McEniery and Shane Marsh, co-founders of instant payment service Dosh. Photo / Supplied

James McEniery and Shane Marsh, co-founders of instant payment service Dosh. Photo / Supplied

Kiwi digital wallet operator Dosh has raised $5 million in a seed funding round which it hopes to use to boost its brand and add more banking services to allow it to compete with the big players.

The company was founded by Shane Marsh and James McEniery who returned home from high-flying corporate jobs in Singapore due to Covid-19 but found many of the digital services they had got used to don't exist here.

Dosh went live in October. Users download the app for free and then transfer money from their bank account to their digital wallet. They can then use this to transfer payments to another person who has Dosh or a business with Dosh.

It allows payments to be made using either a mobile number or QR code scanned at the counter of a merchant or on their bill - allowing parties at a restaurant to split their bill and make separate payments.

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The system also allows people to request payment from another user allowing a tradesperson to instantly attach and send an invoice for work they have just done.

Marsh said the backers of its seed capital raise were existing investors who were private individuals and didn't want to be named.

"The significant Dosh raise reflects the material opportunity in New Zealand for a locally grown, digitally focused competitor in the banking services market. We believe there is a gap in the market for Dosh to provide services that give Kiwis greater freedom and control over their money."

He said the company had two key areas of focus for this year.

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"The first is to grow our customer base and build our brand and awareness. That is something James is leading for us."

The second area of focus was continuing to develop the Dosh app.

"We have got a really exciting development plan for the next 12 months which will be primarily in the payments space. But Dosh will evolve beyond payments, targeting more broader banking services, which is our medium to long-term strategy."

Marsh said it hoped to be able to offer savings and loans accounts in the future to its customers base and was also looking to add micro-investing and potentially insurance products as well.

"So really we are following that path of becoming more of a super app that provides digital financial services, competing more with the banking market."

Marsh said it had been having discussions with the Reserve Bank around what banking looked like in the future in New Zealand but he said they weren't planning to apply for a banking licence.

"Ultimately we don't think the current regulations really allow, from a capital perspective, for us to become a bank."

But it was looking at how it and other fintechs could work within the regulatory requirements to provide banking services to customers.

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"We would like to enter the banking services market and that can be through Dosh and also through partnering as well as with other providers - that is something we are looking at."

Marsh said New Zealand would definitely benefit from greater competition in the banking services market.

"So how do we reduce or review the barriers that could be preventing competition coming into the market because everyone will benefit from competition - consumers and businesses both in terms of greater choice and lower cost."

He said Dosh already had partnerships with banks.

"Whether we further develop those partnerships to further develop services is something we could look at but ultimately we see Dosh as a competitor of the banking market, and the future for us being growing our brand and the services which we offer directly to New Zealand consumers and businesses."

Marsh wouldn't disclose how many customers Dosh currently has but said it had been pleased with the growth seen in the five months since launch.

The business was now in the process of adding to its team as well as taking on an advisory board.

Marsh said they would look to do a series A capital raising next year and would look to open that up to local and international venture capital firms.

International research has pointed to strong growth in the digital wallet space. Marsh said research from CB Insights estimates the digital wallet fintech sector to be a US$1 trillion ($1.46t) global industry today, and is forecast to grow to US$7t by 2027.

"Digital wallets have seen phenomenal growth globally and Dosh is the first digital wallet in NZ. Whilst we are relatively early in the stage of adoption in New Zealand we think the opportunity here in this market is significant and has also been proven by the uptake offshore."

The company is also hoping now that the Omicron outbreak appears to be peaking that more people will start socialising again.

"The Covid/Omicron challenge has really meant that people have been less active in terms of their spending and haven't been out socialising much.

"Dosh is very much a social app with people out at restaurants splitting bills and sharing payments - that is where Dosh can add a lot of support with instant payments."

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