After a successful career within technology and telecommunications companies including Link Development, LinkdotNet, and Digitaltest, I decided it was time for a change; time to apply all my experience in digital transformation through my own venture.
In 2014 I founded TPAY MOBILE – a full-service mobile payments platform that gives local and global digital service providers access to consumers in the MEA and Turkey. I believe in increasing access to digital goods and services particularly for consumers that do not have access to traditional banking infrastructure and services. I also saw an opportunity to simplify the complex processes that underpin cross-border mobile payment acceptance across the region. The two married perfectly.
How can the tech industry begin to move towards a more balanced gender demographic? What needs to be done to ensure that more women join the market?
There have been positive strides in the drive for greater gender equality, yet both for women and other overlooked groups, there are still huge inclusion gaps. The question remains, how do we actively change this? How do we encourage a broader, more diverse demographic to show an interest in and enter the fintech world?
In my experience, the latter is answered by not only focusing on attracting talent but on retention strategies for diverse backgrounds. This includes promoting an inclusive work culture, ensuring resources are purposely allocated to the recruitment of women to fill senior positions, and not only encourage but empower women to stand up for themselves and what they believe in.
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What advice would you give to aspiring female entrepreneurs?
The advice I would like to pass on to other aspiring female entrepreneurs is to have confidence. It’s important for people who are breaking into the fintech market to believe in themselves and speak up for their ideas. Regardless of experience, each one of us always has something valuable to add and contribute.
What can we hope to see from TPAY MOBILE in the future?
Our ambition is to become an MEA mobile payments powerhouse leading through a continuous innovative approach to achieve our vision of using digital economy monetisation as the vehicle to reach inclusion in MEAT. You can expect to see us continuing to expand our partnerships, reach, technical capabilities and product offering in the months and years to come.
We already have unrivalled coverage across the Middle East, Africa and Turkey but want to connect more consumers to service providers. We also want to keep providing a service quickly, reliably, securely and as cost-effectively as technology allows.
