Pomelo and Thunes Partner on International Money Transfer Solution

Pomelo and Thunes have partnered on an international money transfer solution from the United States to the Philippines.

This credit-based digital wallet solution provides a remittance method that reduces costs and enables users to build their credit history in the U.S., the companies said in a Thursday (May 9) press release.

The solution is enabled by Thunes’ digital wallet integration and Pomelo’s credit-powered remittance capabilities, according to the release.

With this offering, Pomelo underwrites each of its customers to provide a credit line to fund their remittance transfers, the release said. This method provides the customer’s family with access to a line of credit to spend, allows the customer to pay the bill on a monthly cadence, and enables that customer to build a credit history in the U.S.

The Pomelo credit line can be immediately transferred into the recipient’s GCash digital wallet via the Thunes network, per the release. This model incurs no transfer fees to the customer.

Following its launch with the U.S./Philippines remittance corridor, the solution enabled by the partnership of Pomelo and Thunes will later expand to other popular U.S./international markets, according to the release.

“This partnership aligns perfectly with Thunes’ ambition to make cross-border payments faster, more transparent and more affordable, by connecting to over 3 billion digital wallets and 4 billion bank accounts,” Floris de Kort, CEO of Thunes, said in the release.

Eric Velasquez Frenkiel, founder and CEO of Pomelo, added: “Thunes’ emerging markets expertise will be integral to helping us launch our digital wallet integration quickly to move money into the local payment methods of choice, initially in the Philippines/U.S. corridor and beyond, as we expand our reach of services.”

Pomelo announced its official launch in April after several months of private beta. It launched with $70 million in seed funding that includes $20 million in venture capital and $50 million in warehouse facility.

In another recent development, Thunes said in March that it expanded its partnership with Visa into Asia and Africa. In this collaboration, Visa will tap into Thunes’ network to send payments to over 108 digital wallet types and bank accounts.