#215 Elizabeth Rossiello: BitPesa – Building Financial Platforms for Frontier Markets

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The prospect of providing digital cross-border payments for the world's unbanked and underbanked population has always been one of the key use cases for Bitcoin. Cryptocurrencies can be seen as a way for people in developing countries to participate in the global financial market by allowing easy cross-border payments, cheap remittance transactions, and simplified lending options.

We're pleased to be joined by Elizabeth Rossiello, CEO and Founder of BitPesa. BitPesa provides companies in frontier markets with the financial infrastructure to facilitate commerce and payments, where traditional financial markets are known to be fractured and expensive. As an early Bitcoin company founded in 2013, BitPesa is now present in a handful of African countries and provides essential financial services to businesses, allowing them to send and collect payments, and perform quick and affordable Forex trades.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Elizabeth's journey to Bitcoin and BitPesa
- BitPesa's vision and how it compares existing mobile money platforms present in Africa
- BitPesa's offering and how it has evolved since the company was founded in 2013
- The primary pain points and barriers to doing business in developing African markets
- Foreign exchange markets in Africa
- The challenges and opportunities regarding blockchain adoption in African markets
- The future of Bitcoin as a payment system

Links mentioned in this episode:
- BitPesa: http://bitpesa.com
- Elizabeth Rossiello Describes How BitPesa Slashes International Payment Fees: https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2016/06/15/elizabeth-rossiello-describes-how-bitpesa-slashes-international-payment-fees/#20f138aa2a6d
- BitPesa Founder Elizabeth Rossiello Keynotes at ConsenSys' Ethereal Summit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdGgR5HgNCk
- Elizabeth Rossiello on Twitter: https://twitter.com/e_rossiello

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Epicenter is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy.