Streami, a cross-border payment company in South Korea, is a good antidote to illegal remittances

Rage Comment : The blockchain craze is sweeping the world on one side of the earth, while the hip-pop of the country of Oppa is also spreading in a brand new and popular way on the other side. It seems that these two completely unrelated ways have occupied the world. Imagine what kind of sparks can be created when kimchi meets the mysterious blockchain? South Korea, which has always been at the forefront of the trend, has achieved great success in both the science and technology fields. It coincides with the spring breeze of blockchain. Whether kimchi Oppa can catch up with this new wave, and how the Korean cross-border payment company Streami will combine with blockchain are all worth paying attention to.

Author: Amber Dingding

The blockchain craze is sweeping the world on one side of the earth, while the hip-pop of the country of Oppa is also spreading in a brand new and popular way on the other side. It seems that these two completely unrelated ways have occupied the world. Imagine what kind of sparks can be created when kimchi meets the mysterious blockchain? South Korea, which has always been at the forefront of the trend, has achieved great success in both the science and technology fields. With the spring breeze of blockchain, whether kimchi Oppa can catch up with this new wave, and how the Korean cross-border payment company Streami will combine with blockchain, are all worth paying attention to.

As an innovation in underlying technology, the impact that blockchain will bring to the world in the future will not be less than the emergence of the Internet. This change will definitely start from the development of the most basic technology and eventually slowly penetrate into the application level of finance and various industries. Any technological innovation requires time to ferment and improve. As South Korea is an emerging technology country, it is worth looking forward to how Streami will participate in the blockchain and what changes it can bring to the blockchain.

South Korean cross-border payment company Streami may attend the Shanghai Blockchain International Week in Shanghai in September, according to people familiar with the matter.

The birth of Streami in "Kimchi"

On December 25, 2015, Streami, a Korean blockchain remittance startup, received $2 million in seed funding. As of press time, although it is a startup, it has received support from many investors, including Shinhan Bank, one of the largest financial service providers in South Korea, as well as Shinhan Data Systems, ICB, Blue Dot Partners and some angel investors. Shinhan Bank promised to provide 500 million won (about 427,000 US dollars) in seed funding. What kind of influence does Shinhan Bank have in investing in Streami, and what reasons attracted the well-established Shinhan Bank are worth further investigation.

According to the data, Shinhan Bank is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shinhan Financial Group (established in September 2001). Shinhan Bank's credit ratings are A- and A3 respectively from Standard & Poor's and Moody's. It was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2003. It has more than 1,000 branches around the world, including Korea, and more than 14,000 employees. It has 23 overseas branches and legal entities in 9 countries. In April 2006, it successfully completed the merger with Chohung Bank (the first bank in Korea with a history of 100 years), becoming one of the largest commercial banks in Korea.

History of Shinhan Bank

This shows that Shinhan Bank has great influence in South Korea. As the largest commercial bank in South Korea, it has its own future plans for blockchain. This important layout reveals its future plans and its views on the international craze.

Streami's business mainly targets the cross-border remittance market, including South Korea, China, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand, aiming to help people in these regions bypass illegal money transfer services.

From the overall business model of SingHang Bank, it can be seen that its biggest competitors are traditional remittance service providers and illegal money transfer operators who occupy a significant share of South Korea's outbound remittance market. This is also exactly the same as the news previously revealed by Streami CEO Lee Junhan. Therefore, the deep meaning behind the investment of Shinhan Bank is to deploy legal and compliant cross-border remittance services in the cross-border remittance field, so that illegal money transfer operators will gradually decrease and the foreign exchange market will develop in an orderly and normal manner.

Other investors followed suit

Streami’s investors include Shinhan Data Systems, the IT arm of Shinhan Bank, as well as ICB, a payments company that works with Asian e-commerce giant Alibaba, venture capital firm Bluepoint Partners, and a group of angel investors.

The cooperation with ICB will provide better foreign exchange FinTech services based on blockchain. Streami will bring reliable and regulated liquidity through encrypted network technology. Han Yong Lee, CEO of ICB, said that his company participated in this round of financing in order to further explore this technology.

It is reported that Streami's current round of funds will be used to open branches in cities outside Seoul and recruit new talents. Although the company has no revenue yet, the company said that the final revenue plan is to charge institutional clients a reasonable service fee.

According to data, illegal remittance agencies account for a significant share of the remittance market between South Korea and foreign countries. As of December last year, illegal remittance funds ranked third in the crypto industry, which has been the quietest in two years. Foreigners need to pay high fees to local banks in South Korea when remitting money to their home country. This downward trend is most obvious in startups, thus catering to Bitcoin as a currency. Therefore, investors have turned their attention to these companies that develop blockchain technology. Although many large financial institutions are now doing internal investment, to a certain extent, it can also effectively ease the legalization and planning of cross-border funds in South Korea.