Ismail Ahmed
ome entrepreneurs
S
identify business
opportunities
through rigorous
market analysis.
Others stumble on their idea by
chance. Ismail Ahmed, founder
and executive chairman of
mobile-to-mobile money transfer
firm WorldRemit, spotted a gap
in the market because he had
personal experience of the
transformative effect of
migrants sending money home.
The reason: remittances.
Ahmed grew up in Hargeisa,
the capital of the Republic Of
Somaliland. He describes it as
“relatively affluent and beautiful”.
“Somaliland is a country defined
by migration and remittance,” he
says. “There was a gold rush caused
by oil in the nearby Persian Gulf
during the 1970s. Many Somalis,
including my brother and sister,
went to work in the Gulf. Money
sent back by those migrant workers
helped make Hargeisa prosperous.”
Ahmed founded WorldRemit in
2010. Today it is a booming global
company, sending money from
more than 50 countries to almost
150 countries, with 720 employees
worldwide and a turnover of roughly
£95 million a year – up 50% in the
last year alone. It has more than
3.5 million customers. Even though
“It’s been said many times
that what entrepreneurs do
best is solve problems. No
problem, no business. Pretty
simple, actually. In Ismail
Ahmed’s case, the problem
was both visceral and real,”
says John Mullins,
Associate Professor
of Management
Practice in Marketing
and Entrepreneurship,
LBS. “He had experienced
how costly and difficult
it was for people to send
remittances to their loved
ones back home, and he’d
26 LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL REVIEW ISSUE 1 - 2019
Which industry is next in line for disruption?
ENTREPRENEUR WHO FOUNDED A GLOBAL REMITTANCES
COMPANY – AND CHANGED LIVES IN THE PROCESS
it has not yet turned a profit, it has been hailed as “a sending money. His first step was to
unicorn in waiting” – a firm worth at least US $1 billion enrol at London Business School’s
(£750 million). Entrepreneurship Summer School as
Ahmed’s idea was for a mobile-based, online money part of an EMBA programme. “LBS
transfer system which disintermediates and undercuts was part of my strategy to develop
the banks and traditional remittance firms such as my business. I used the opportunity
Western Union, but is more secure than informal to assess and shape my business idea
networks. It first came to him after he won a government and tap into the global alumni
scholarship to study economics at the University of network that is incredibly valuable
London and started sending home the proceeds of his for aspiring entrepreneurs,” he says.
part-time jobs, including summer fruit picking in Kent. Compliance was probably the
He soon witnessed the shortcomings in the system greatest single challenge for his
first-hand: “I wanted to send money regularly, but the fledgling business, he says: “From
banks often couldn’t do it because many recipients the start, we wanted to build a global
are unbanked. So, I relied on costly and inconvenient business. But you need a licence in
informal networks and agents. It could take weeks every country, which sometimes
for the money to arrive – if it got there at all. have conflicting requirements. Just
“If you had to travel to the agent locations, that could to operate in the US, we had to apply
cost £5 or £10 in fares. You would typically pay £25 in for licences in each of the 50 states.”
fees to transfer £200. And, at the other end, the recipient Despite WorldRemit’s rapid
might have to journey for hours to pick up the money.” growth, there have been setbacks.
Transaction costs could easily eat up 20% or even more In the early days the company tried
of the money sent back. to expand into Canada – but it
After his degree and research at the University of turned out that the Canadian online ‘Remittances are
Sussex, which focused on remittances, Ahmed returned market was very different from the
to Africa. A few years later he lost his job at the UN in UK; not least because, at the time,
worth more than
Kenya after he blew the whistle on widespread local debit cards couldn’t be used three times all aid
corruption. Fuelled by a powerful sense of injustice, he online. “We got it wrong and it took budgets combined ...
came back to the UK determined to find a better way of us time to fix the challenge we faced
to offer our customers convenient
they are the largest
pay-in method,” Ahmed remembers. source of foreign
Finally they got it right and Canada currency in some
also seen the upside of that helped him shape his is now one of their biggest markets.
the good that remittances The company has since gone
countries’
soon-to-be venture, and he
can do for a place like his leveraged the LBS network through several rounds of financing.
homeland in Somaliland. to bring in co-founders and In the early years it relied on
Happily, Ismail had the vision others who had some of the super-angel investors from the LBS
that today’s technology requisite skills and resources network that invested US$7.5 million and diluting equity is “the classic US$700 billion a year. “The value of remittances is Ahmed has adopted a strategy
could make sending – compliance expertise, in the business. “This investment entrepreneur’s dilemma – whether more than three times bigger than all government aid of deferred gratification to grow
remittances both easier digital marketing capabilities enabled us to delay VC funding to to own 100% of a small pie or a slice budgets combined and they are the largest source of WorldRemit into a company with
and cheaper – and the and capital, too – that the a stage when we had the traction of a much larger pie.” foreign currency in some countries, accounting for up global reach. It has ambitions to
smarts to know that business would require. and revenue base that helped us to For many brands and businesses, to 10% of GDP,” says Ahmed. “They are key, not only to capture 10 million users and has
he couldn’t do it alone. The happy result is that be selective of who we take money purpose is an afterthought or individual wellbeing but a vital engine for the economic entered the new market of intra-
By enrolling in 2008 in the WorldRemit has transformed from,” says Ahmed. The company post-rationalisation, a sweetener development of many countries.” regional remittances, launching
then-new Executive MBA families’ lives in more than has raised more than US$200 million drizzled on the surface of the He points out that a major advantage of remittances in South Africa as a ‘send’ market
programme that LBS was 150 countries. They say one in funding backed by Accel and TCV enterprise to make it look better. over aid is that, unlike aid, the payments don’t just earlier this year. As for becoming
offering in Dubai, he gained person cannot change the (early investors in Facebook, Spotify, But for WorldRemit, higher purpose ‘disappear.’ For example, “Only 20% of the Italian profitable in the near future, he says:
MATEUSZ BAJ
access to tools, frameworks world. But, for many, Ismail Netflix and Slack) and LeapFrog, is part of the recipe. aid money in 2011 left the country and only a small “We are close, but it’s still early days
and MBA coursework Ahmed has done just that.” a social-impact investor. Ahmed According to the World Bank, the fraction of this is likely to reach intended for us.” His ambition is understated
confesses that raising capital global value of remittances is about beneficiaries,” he observes dryly. – but limitless for all that.
LONDON.EDU/LBSR LONDON.EDU/LBSR LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL REVIEW ISSUE 1 - 2019 27

ome entrepreneurs
S
identify business
opportunities
through rigorous
market analysis.
Others stumble on their idea by
chance. Ismail Ahmed, founder
and executive chairman of
mobile-to-mobile money transfer
firm WorldRemit, spotted a gap
in the market because he had
personal experience of the
transformative effect of
migrants sending money home.
The reason: remittances.
Ahmed grew up in Hargeisa,
the capital of the Republic Of
Somaliland. He describes it as
“relatively affluent and beautiful”.
“Somaliland is a country defined
by migration and remittance,” he
says. “There was a gold rush caused
by oil in the nearby Persian Gulf
during the 1970s. Many Somalis,
including my brother and sister,
went to work in the Gulf. Money
sent back by those migrant workers
helped make Hargeisa prosperous.”
Ahmed founded WorldRemit in
2010. Today it is a booming global
company, sending money from
more than 50 countries to almost
150 countries, with 720 employees
worldwide and a turnover of roughly
£95 million a year – up 50% in the
last year alone. It has more than
3.5 million customers. Even though
“It’s been said many times
that what entrepreneurs do
best is solve problems. No
problem, no business. Pretty
simple, actually. In Ismail
Ahmed’s case, the problem
was both visceral and real,”
says John Mullins,
Associate Professor
of Management
Practice in Marketing
and Entrepreneurship,
LBS. “He had experienced
how costly and difficult
it was for people to send
remittances to their loved
ones back home, and he’d
26 LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL REVIEW ISSUE 1 - 2019
Ismail Ahmed
Which industry is next in line for disruption?
ENTREPRENEUR WHO FOUNDED A GLOBAL REMITTANCES
COMPANY – AND CHANGED LIVES IN THE PROCESS
it has not yet turned a profit, it has been hailed as “a sending money. His first step was to
unicorn in waiting” – a firm worth at least US $1 billion enrol at London Business School’s
(£750 million). Entrepreneurship Summer School as
Ahmed’s idea was for a mobile-based, online money part of an EMBA programme. “LBS
transfer system which disintermediates and undercuts was part of my strategy to develop
the banks and traditional remittance firms such as my business. I used the opportunity
Western Union, but is more secure than informal to assess and shape my business idea
networks. It first came to him after he won a government and tap into the global alumni
scholarship to study economics at the University of network that is incredibly valuable
London and started sending home the proceeds of his for aspiring entrepreneurs,” he says.
part-time jobs, including summer fruit picking in Kent. Compliance was probably the
He soon witnessed the shortcomings in the system greatest single challenge for his
first-hand: “I wanted to send money regularly, but the fledgling business, he says: “From
banks often couldn’t do it because many recipients the start, we wanted to build a global
are unbanked. So, I relied on costly and inconvenient business. But you need a licence in
informal networks and agents. It could take weeks every country, which sometimes
for the money to arrive – if it got there at all. have conflicting requirements. Just
“If you had to travel to the agent locations, that could to operate in the US, we had to apply
cost £5 or £10 in fares. You would typically pay £25 in for licences in each of the 50 states.”
fees to transfer £200. And, at the other end, the recipient Despite WorldRemit’s rapid
might have to journey for hours to pick up the money.” growth, there have been setbacks.
Transaction costs could easily eat up 20% or even more In the early days the company tried
of the money sent back. to expand into Canada – but it
After his degree and research at the University of turned out that the Canadian online ‘Remittances are
Sussex, which focused on remittances, Ahmed returned market was very different from the
to Africa. A few years later he lost his job at the UN in UK; not least because, at the time,
worth more than
Kenya after he blew the whistle on widespread local debit cards couldn’t be used three times all aid
corruption. Fuelled by a powerful sense of injustice, he online. “We got it wrong and it took budgets combined ...
came back to the UK determined to find a better way of us time to fix the challenge we faced
to offer our customers convenient
they are the largest
pay-in method,” Ahmed remembers. source of foreign
Finally they got it right and Canada currency in some
also seen the upside of that helped him shape his is now one of their biggest markets.
the good that remittances The company has since gone
countries’
soon-to-be venture, and he
can do for a place like his leveraged the LBS network through several rounds of financing.
homeland in Somaliland. to bring in co-founders and In the early years it relied on
Happily, Ismail had the vision others who had some of the super-angel investors from the LBS
that today’s technology requisite skills and resources network that invested US$7.5 million and diluting equity is “the classic US$700 billion a year. “The value of remittances is Ahmed has adopted a strategy
could make sending – compliance expertise, in the business. “This investment entrepreneur’s dilemma – whether more than three times bigger than all government aid of deferred gratification to grow
remittances both easier digital marketing capabilities enabled us to delay VC funding to to own 100% of a small pie or a slice budgets combined and they are the largest source of WorldRemit into a company with
and cheaper – and the and capital, too – that the a stage when we had the traction of a much larger pie.” foreign currency in some countries, accounting for up global reach. It has ambitions to
smarts to know that business would require. and revenue base that helped us to For many brands and businesses, to 10% of GDP,” says Ahmed. “They are key, not only to capture 10 million users and has
he couldn’t do it alone. The happy result is that be selective of who we take money purpose is an afterthought or individual wellbeing but a vital engine for the economic entered the new market of intra-
By enrolling in 2008 in the WorldRemit has transformed from,” says Ahmed. The company post-rationalisation, a sweetener development of many countries.” regional remittances, launching
then-new Executive MBA families’ lives in more than has raised more than US$200 million drizzled on the surface of the He points out that a major advantage of remittances in South Africa as a ‘send’ market
programme that LBS was 150 countries. They say one in funding backed by Accel and TCV enterprise to make it look better. over aid is that, unlike aid, the payments don’t just earlier this year. As for becoming
offering in Dubai, he gained person cannot change the (early investors in Facebook, Spotify, But for WorldRemit, higher purpose ‘disappear.’ For example, “Only 20% of the Italian profitable in the near future, he says:
MATEUSZ BAJ
access to tools, frameworks world. But, for many, Ismail Netflix and Slack) and LeapFrog, is part of the recipe. aid money in 2011 left the country and only a small “We are close, but it’s still early days
and MBA coursework Ahmed has done just that.” a social-impact investor. Ahmed According to the World Bank, the fraction of this is likely to reach intended for us.” His ambition is understated
confesses that raising capital global value of remittances is about beneficiaries,” he observes dryly. – but limitless for all that.
LONDON.EDU/LBSR LONDON.EDU/LBSR LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL REVIEW ISSUE 1 - 2019 27