Published on 17 May 2021
Singapore/Hamburg. Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM) has launched BSM NiumPay, a digital payment platform for its seafarers and their families to manage finances easily and efficiently. The new payment platform provides seafarers with a multi-currency eWallet and a complimentary VISA card. In addition, a supplementary VISA card is available for the seafarer’s family.
“Digital payments have become an essential part of our everyday lives; seafarers, however, are still very much dependent on cash on board and incur costly charges when sending money home”, says Dennis Moehlmann, Finance Manager at BSM. “With this new initiative, we are taking a big step ahead in digitalising the industry by not only reducing the use of cash aboard vessels but also by giving seafarers the freedom to quickly transfer funds from and to nearly all parts of the world using their mobile phones.”
With BSM NiumPay, seafarers can receive and send funds home in real-time, exchange money at best trading rates as well as withdraw cash at most ATMs worldwide. Furthermore, it includes a multi-currency account, allowing seafarers to manage their balances in all major currencies. Whenever an urgent advance payment is needed, the Master can easily top up the seafarer’s eWallet instantly.
The idea behind the unique platform was formed when BSM and its sister company Innoport, the corporate venturing arm of the Schulte Group, realised that existing solutions simply did not meet the complex requirements of a globally operating shipping company. Both companies then joined forces to fill this market gap.
"The eWallet is uniquely designed for BSM to meet the specific needs of seafarers, taking into account their global work environment. By partnering with Nium, a Singapore-based fintech company, we ensure that all services can be seamlessly and conveniently accessed through a single app on the user’s mobile phone”, explains Haymon Sinapius, Investment Manager at Innoport.
Following the first successful trials aboard ten vessels, BSM is now targeting a broad and fast implementation to connect its seafarers, vessel by vessel, starting with the Asia-Pacific region. Going forward, BSM will continue to share its experience in developing and implementing the platform with other interested vessel owners and ship managers, taking an active role in supporting the maritime industry in moving away from cash and reap the benefits of digitalisation.
About Innoport
Innoport is the venture capital unit of the Schulte Group that identifies investment opportunities in startups from the global maritime and the logistics sector and equips entrepreneurs with smart capital. The Innoport team works globally to build up a diversified investment portfolio of innovative and high potential seed-stage startups across Asia and Europe, and supports Schulte Group business units in their technological transformation. They work with founders from the discovery stage up to successful exit, promoting the portfolio companies to a wider network within the Schulte Group.
For further information, please view https://innoport.vc/.
About Nium
Nium is a next-generation financial services platform that enables companies around the world to unlock new revenue opportunities and improve cash flow economics. Nium is a leader in its geographical and payment service breadth, owning licenses in the world's largest and fastest-growing economies. Our modular platform allows banks, payment providers, travel companies, and other businesses to collect and disburse funds in local currencies to over 100 countries, plus issue physical and virtual cards globally. Our proprietary set of APIs embeds financial services and can bring to life multiple B2B and B2C use cases in a matter of weeks. Nium is part of CB Insights Fintech 250, which highlights the most promising Fintech companies globally. Today, Nium serves over 130 million customers and enables platforms to provide access to financial services to over 3 billion people across the world.
For more information, visit http://www.Nium.com.