BeamAndGo enhances alternative remittance platform to augment the income of OFWs

It is not uncommon to find Filipino families with at least one family member working abroad sending money back home. In September, remittances from Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) hit a two-month high of $3.15 billion. Last year, personal and cash remittances also increased 5.1 percent to record high levels of $34.98 billion and $31.42 billion, respectively. These OFWs work and sacrifice time with their loved ones to save money and build a better future. 

But there are still challenges in building toward a better future. Despite the increase in remittances, many Filipino families still struggle to save and invest properly. There are even instances where OFW remittances are misused by the family back home, going to vices such as drugs and alcohol. This results in the OFW having to earn more just to compensate, keeping them away from their families much longer than originally planned. 

Philippine startup BeamAndGo offers a better way for OFWs to use their remittances. Founded in 2014 by Albert Christian Go and Jonathan E. Chua, BeamAndGo offers multiple solutions with the goal of helping OFWs take control and direct where their remittances are going.

Co-founder Albert Go himself has a good understanding of what it’s like to be an OFW, having previously moved to Singapore in search of better opportunities. Prior to the move, Go worked as a fixed-income trader at BDO and as a communications specialist & CSR programme manager at GE Money Bank. He worked in Singapore as a Corporate Communications Head for a social service agency when BeamAndGo first started.

Go’s past experience working in finance, communications, and social services has a strong influence on BeamAndGo. The platform’s solutions all come from a place of wanting to financially empower OFWs. 

For example, BeamAndGo’s web-based marketplace allows OFWs to directly buy digital vouchers for essential items like groceries and medicines. These vouchers are received by the OFW’s families and can be used at a number of popular supermarkets/retailers such as Robinson’s Supermarket, SM, Southstar Drug, Jollibee, Prince Hypermart, Gaisano Supermarket, and more. BeamAndGo even has agreements with these businesses to make sure these vouchers are not used for non-essentials such as alcohol or cigarettes. 

The idea for BeamAndGo was formulated when Go realized that many of his OFW friends were still struggling in spite of having well-paying jobs. “Even though their salary went up, it wasn’t any easier for them as breadwinners,” Go recalled. “It became a vicious cycle. They still needed to keep working no matter how much money they sent back.” 

Go then began flying back and forth between the Philippines and Singapore. His aim was to onboard as many supermarkets as possible onto BeamAndGo’s marketplace.  There was a particular focus on Visayas and Mindanao, where many families of OFWs were based. 

BeamAndGo’s solutions also gained attention as the team conducts on-ground events to reach OFWs. The team understood that the key was to go where OFWs liked to congregate in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, etc. (where BeamAndGo’s customer base mostly comes from) and set up booths showing what BeamAndGo could do. The team even went as far as sponsoring salo-salo (meal gathering) events for OFW communities. 

BeamAndGo was also kept afloat by a number of grants. One such grant was the ‘Fintech for Impact’ by ING and UNICEF, which supported fintech startups creating a positive social impact. 

The BeamAndGo marketplace eventually grew in popularity, especially as it began to include diverse payment options like the e-wallet GCash and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) through Atome and TendoPay. The supermarket e-vouchers proved to be the most popular product, alongside others such as Food Padala and Bigas Padala. Today, BeamAndGo has about 13,000 monthly active users and an average transaction value of about P8,000-P10,000. 

BeamAndGo’s monetization model is built mainly around varying markups from merchants’ goods as well as transaction fees: a flat fee of Php75 no matter the size of the purchase. 

Yet BeamAndGo realized that a huge driver of its sales wasn’t necessarily from individual OFWs sending remittances through their products and services. 

“We realized that what drove our sales were actually people reselling BeamAndGo’s products,” explained Go. “It became almost as if they were referring people to BeamAndGo.”

This realization resulted in BeamAndGo’s BeAMillionaire program. The BeAMillionaire program allows OFWs to become official resellers of BeamAndGo’s products after going through a simple onboarding program. Resellers can even start with as little as P10,000. 

BeamAndGo resellers often help other OFWs get essentials to their families. An OFW who has yet to receive their salary, for example, can borrow BeamAndGo credits from these BeAMillionaire resellers to send groceries right away. These resellers then act as another ‘shop now, pay later’ option. 

Resellers under the BeAMillionaire program typically earn up to P15,000 to P25,000 a month. “One reseller was even able to sell about P1 million pesos’ worth of goods,” shared Go. “So, it’s a very lucrative side hustle for some.”

BeamAndGo has even launched an online point-of-sale (POS) system to assist those under the BeAMillionaire program. The POS system allows users to see their balance, track transactions, store customer/beneficiary info, and so much more. The system even mimics the layout of BeamAndGo’s marketplace to make it easier to understand. Finally, a quick report generation tool lets users quickly see how their business is doing. 

Despite the success of the BeamAndGo marketplace and the BeAMillionaire program, however, it wasn’t always smooth sailing for the BeamAndGo team. 

“At the end of last year, we had to cut about 50% of our team,” revealed Go. “Most of them worked in marketing functions and had to be let go when we realized we had to change our marketing approach.”

According to Go, the BeamAndGo team realized a mass consumer marketing approach wasn’t working for them. Rather than trying to reach as many people as possible—some who may not even be OFWs—it was better for them to focus on running the BeamAndGo site. 

“There was also a sort of fatigue when it came to marketing. There wasn’t a singular platform anymore where you could advertise and get people to BeamAndGo,” Go continued. 

The focus on running the BeamAndGo site is appropriate however considering Go’s anticipation of consistent remittance growth in the future. It is a prediction substantiated by data: the aggregated flows of family remittances to lower-middle-income countries are expected to reach US$5.4 trillion by 2030. These projections come even in spite of global economic headwinds such as rising inflation. In fact, remittances have proved strong even in the face of past crises: remittances rose by over 9% globally even in 2020. 

BeamAndGo plans to be in a prime position to streamline remittances and help OFWs. The platform is already in the middle of developing enterprise solutions that would let other businesses use its application programming interface or API. Sharing BeamAndGo’s API would enable other businesses or even OFWs to create their own digital marketplaces—sort of like a mini-BeamAndGo. 

BeamAndGo is also ready to play a bigger role in disaster relief initiatives. BeamAndGo previously partnered with the decentralized finance platform Celo and the non-profit Grameen Foundation to help distribute relief goods during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiative was supported by J.P. Morgan and targeted 3,400 individual microentrepreneurs or daily wage earners, especially women, affected by community lockdowns. BeamAndGo’s work in disaster relief is especially relevant considering the rising popularity of in-kind donations, rather than cash donations going through local government units. 

Of course, BeamAndGo’s future initiatives will all go back to its goal of empowering OFWs. BeamAndGo’s work with Celo and the Grameen Foundation involved the use of the blockchain-based Valora app. The Valora app was used to let people pay for BeamAndGo groceries in the cryptocurrency Celo USD or cUSD. By using Valora’s blockchain, the transactions were fast and, most of all, cheap. 

“At the end of the day, we want OFWs to be in control of their finances,” said Go. “The decentralization aspect of blockchain and crypto, where there are little to no transaction fees, fits right in with that mission. Our work with Celo and the Grameen Foundation shows that everything BeamAndGo does serves to empower the OFW.”

“It’s our mission to see to it that no OFW’s hard-earned money will ever go to waste,” concluded Go. “If we succeed, OFWs can hopefully finally go home to their loved ones—sooner rather than later.”