Editor’s note: African-Startups is a sister publication of EU-Startups, bringing trusted coverage of startups, venture capital, and innovation across Africa.
European FinTech firm Belmoney has teamed up with pan-African payments company DigiPay Group to launch DigiTransfer, a mobile application designed to make money transfers from France and Belgium to the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) faster, cheaper, and more accessible.
The app, available on both Android and iOS, allows users to send funds directly from their smartphones into mobile money wallets and bank accounts in both the Republic of Congo and the DRC. They claim to complete the transfers in under five minutes through a regulated network that processes payments via international card networks Visa and Mastercard.
The key to this fast transfer is Belmoney’s white-label Remittance-as-a-Service (RaaS) model. Rather than navigating lengthy national licensing processes independently, DigiPay Group is deploying DigiTransfer under its own brand by plugging into Belmoney’s existing compliance and regulatory framework. They claim this setup dramatically reduces time-to-market.
Founded in 2013 and licensed as a type 6 payment institution by the National Bank of Belgium, Belmoney serves banks, neobanks, fintechs, and money transfer operators across more than 150 countries. The company operates on a principle of never competing with its clients, positioning itself as pure infrastructure for partners like DigiPay.
“We know how essential trust is when people send the fruits of their labour across borders to care for their families or to develop a business, and we are fully aware of the responsibility that is ours. Our regulatory infrastructure was engineered precisely for this: to eliminate compliance friction so that smart, community-focused solutions can be deployed safely,” said Bruno Pedras, founder and CEO of Belmoney.
DigiPay Group brings deep operational experience on the African side of the corridor. Since its founding in Congo in 2020, the company has processed over 4.2 million transactions, building a network of partnerships with mobile money operators, banks, and international payment providers.
Citing World Bank data, the companies argue that personal remittance inflows to the DRC alone surpass $3.2 billion annually. Yet figures from the Migration Data Portal indicate that Sub-Saharan Africa carries the highest remittance transaction costs in the world – averaging 7.9% – fees that eat directly into the money families depend on. DigiTransfer’s proposition is straightforward: eliminate those fees and compress transfer times from several days to just a few minutes.
While DigiTransfer currently operates only outbound from France and Belgium, both companies have signalled that this corridor is the first step in a wider European rollout.
“To launch DigiTransfer in Europe, we needed a partner sharing our commitment to speed, security, and community respect. Relying on Belmoney’s robust European platform offers absolute peace of mind to our diaspora users. It is also the launchpad we need to expand everywhere in Europe,” said Gachlem Ngassaki-Zoni, founder and CEO of DigiPay Group.
Remittance remains a massive economic pillar in Africa, and according to the African Development Bank Group, the diaspora sends over $95 billion annually. While African FinTechs would have to build regulatory frameworks from scratch, the partnership between DigiPay Group and Belmoney shows a different approach.
Instead of building, African businesses are approaching European markets by leveraging established infrastructure to deploy products at speed. For millions of Congolese living across the Eurozone, the advantage is clear: more money reaching home, faster, and for less.
