STARTUP FOCUS: Sentbe's easy and cheap cross-border remittance system adds global talent

[Photo by Lee Seung-hwan]

South Korea’s fintech remittance startup Sentbe has brought on an international financier with smell on innovation, impressed by the company’s signature easy yet cheap cross-border money transmitting system.

“I enjoy being in fintech because of the potential of new technologies to transform ways of transacting and doing business. Companies like Sentbe are in the business of democratizing financial services and making it easier, faster and cheaper for people and businesses to access financial services,” Shulin Tay told Maeil Business Newspaper upon joining the Seoul-based company as chief legal & compliance officer (CCO).

Tay, 39, has always been searching for new and innovative adventures. After working six years for the Ministry of Defense of Singapore, she went to the U.S. and studied law at the George Washington University Law School J.D in 2010-2013.

After graduation, Tay started her career in law first at JPMorgan Chase & Co. as a global compliance manager. She then moved to Deutsche Bank New York and served as vice president of the legal department. Three years later, Tay returned to Singapore to join Mastercard Singapore to spearhead its legal work.

Eager in fast-changing new work, Tay soon later chose to work for Revolut Singapore, the Singaporean arm of London-based fintech company Revolut. She took charge of legal counsel and data protection for the Asian market when Revolut started its service in the Southeast Asian country.

Revolut now provides its banking services in more than 35 countries in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. Its corporate value is estimated at $33 billion.

Korean fintech startup Sentbe is her latest stop. Envisioning to becoming the next Revolut, Sentbe offers its cross-border person-to-person money transfer service in more than 50 countries as of the end of April. Its remittance service is cheaper, faster and easier than that of high street banks as it does not use the Swift network.

“Moving funds across borders has traditionally been a stressful experience. When I was an undergrad in the U.S., I always had to plan weeks ahead when school fees were due or I needed more funds transferred from Singapore for my daily expenses,” said Tay.

“I would lose a significant amount (particularly for a student) in banking fees and exchange rates each time I had to remit funds from my bank account in Singapore to my bank account in the US. It sounds ridiculous thinking about it now,” she added.

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