News

Startup company turns cell phone into wallet

March 31, 2008

CNNMoney.com: When software entrepreneur Carol Realini first visited Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, signs of brutal poverty were everywhere — sprawling slums, diphtheria, flickering power. But she saw one stark contrast: Almost everyone had a cellphone. And the phones were used like virtual money clips.That moment in Kinshasa gave Realini, 57, the idea for her next act: a mobile payment system that, like a gift card, lets users store cash in their phones and transfer it via the Web to other phones (if, say, you owe a friend money) or use it to shop. Not only would the system make simple transactions quicker and easier, she figured, but it might also create a conduit for humanitarian aid that would bypass local corruption and improve lives in the developing world.