Looking for a way to help the unbanked population in rural parts of the Philippines, Harvard Kennedy School alumna Rebecca Kersch developed the TANG app.
Kersch came up with the original concept after working for a nonprofit and interning with the United Nations. She also spoke with her tita, the Filipino word for auntie, about the cost of using money transfer services like Western Union abroad.
“Like the 10 million other overseas Filipino workers, she pays on average of about 8 percent” in wire fees, Kersch said. “It means that in a year of her working and living abroad, she works an entire month just to cover the fees to send money home.”
Kersch imagined TANG as an alternative solution. Kersch, who is Filipina and Dutch, said $2 to $4 sent through the app can pay for a week’s worth of mobile airtime top-up, or phone data. It’s as easy as transferring money through PayPal and Venmo.
TANG would charge users a fee to send money, too, but it would be less than half of what its competitors charge, Kersch said.
“You could say, ‘I just want to send 100 pesos, which is two U.S. dollars, in minutes,’ or ‘I want to send half a gigabyte plus a bit of texting,’” the founder and CEO said.
TANG always keeps in mind the receiver. TANG comes from the latin word tange, which means touch — and the app's motto is “touch finance for all.”
TANG the acronym, Kersch said, stands for TransAct aNd Go.
“Our vision is that we think sending money should be as easy as texting, regardless of where you live, what your income is and what currency you earn or spend," Kersch said. "None of that should matter, and we're working tirelessly on that vision."
The app is also meant to make it easier for those in the Philippines to receive money. In normal times, Kersch said most in the Philippines have to travel hours to a specific store or branch to receive remittances through traditional means like Western Union. The country, she said, relies heavily on cash.
But with many places shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, Kersch believes services like TANG are especially relevant.
“It's also been shown that cash money, unfortunately, [is a] transmitter of the virus,” Kersch said. “Digital payments, digital solutions — particularly for unbanked people who could not go to ATMs today or get the exact cash they needed — are ever more important.”
Kersch planned to launch her fintech app with Filipino migrant workers aboard a cruise ship earlier in the year. Then, the coronavirus hit.
The TANG app team, made up of several Harvard and MIT graduates, began to pivot. The app was revamped and is now being used to send phone data and minutes abroad. The app’s original purpose, for Filipino migrant workers to send remittances abroad, is still a goal for the year 2021.
Kersch, who has no technological background, said she was able to develop the app after hiring a lead engineer. She also consulted her mentor Samantha Whitmore, who she met through an entrepreneurship startup class at Harvard Business School. Whitmore was the former head of engineering for fintech company Kensho before it was acquired.
Kersch received another benefit from the Harvard Kennedy School: There, she was an Adrian Cheng fellow, which gave her the grant money for her startup.
“That was sort of a big game changer for us because that was the first funding, that was the first sort of vote of confidence [that] ‘I think we’re onto something,’ and ‘I think that the impact we’re going for matters,’” Kersch said.
Her team also went on to win a grant from Harvard Innovation Labs, a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation-Acumen Student Social Innovation Challenge and grant money for being a runner-up for the 2020 Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge. The app has also received funding from two investors.
Jordan Frias is a contributing writer for BostInno.
