Íkualo to launch next month as neobank for Europe’s financially excluded immigrant community
Neobank Íkualo is launching next month and will enable immigrants living in Europe to access financial services with just a passport.
Íkualo to launch in Spain next month (Image: LinkedIn)
Based in Barcelona and led by Columbia-born CEO Harold Correa Cardona, Íkualo is licenced as an electronic money institution (EMI) and promotes itself as a super app for the continent’s financially excluded.
There are only three requirements for customers to be onboarded: have a passport; live in Europe; and pass the in-app identity verification process – a process it claims takes just seven minutes.
Set to launch in Spain next month, the app will offer immigrants a range of financial services, including current accounts, microloans, mortgages and international money transfers.
It hopes to have opened 50,00 bank accounts, and to have facilitated 35,000 money transfers and 45,000 payments for essential services within its first year of operating in the country.
Following this, the app intends to be operational in France, Portugal, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands by the middle of next year, with a UK launch next on its agenda.
The app’s inception appears to have been driven by Cardona’s own personal experience as an immigrant. He says that after working in several countries across the continent, a common problem he encountered when trying to open a bank account was the need to present multiple forms of documentation.
Typically a bank will require information regarding employment status, a tax identification number and an initial deposit before allowing their services to be accessed.
“We visited 62 banks until we obtained a licence that allowed us to open accounts for customers with only their passports, regardless of their immigration status. That’s why we’re focusing our efforts on creating this financial super app,” he says.
“With Íkualo, I have a clear mission: to help millions of immigrants improve their lives. I will not rest until I turn it into the super app for immigrants in Europe,” he adds via a recent LinkedIn post.
