Money transfer service businesses MoneyGram International and Jingle Pay announced a partnership Tuesday (Oct. 4) to enable global money transfers through the Jingle Pay app. Consumers in Jingle Pay’s native market, the United Arab Emirates, can now use the Jingle Pay app to send money to over 200 countries and territories around the world.

Whether you’re an established company or a startup building from scratch, I believe knowing customers and understanding your business from their point of view is critical. In my experience, the way to do this is to meet them, literally and metaphorically, where they are.

For the thousands of crypto-first companies that have sprung up over the past few years, the current crypto winter is a significant test of their businesses. BitcoinBTC 0.0%, the bellwether for cryptocurrency as a whole, took an initial tumble in May from upwards of $40,000 to around $30,000, before dropping to prices of around $20,000 in June, where it has more-or-less stayed ever since.

e& (formerly known as Etisalat Group), one of the world’s leading technology and investment conglomerates, and MoneyGram International, a global leader in the evolution of digital peer-to-peer (P2P) payments, announced an expansion of their strategic partnership enabling e&’s large and fast-growing customer base of 160 million to send and receive money through mobile wallets across its footprint in near real-time.

MoneyGram International, Inc., a global leader in the evolution of digital P2P payments, and e& international from e& (formerly known as Etisalat Group), one of the world's leading technology and investment conglomerates, today announced an expansion to their strategic partnership.

MoneyGram is expanding its partnership with technology and investment group e&, a move the companies say will let nearly 160 million people use the e& mobile wallet to send money around the world in near-real time.

MoneyGram launched its crypto-to-cash cross-border money transfer service in June through integration with the Stellar blockchain. Facilitated through Circle’s USD Coin (USDC), it allows for cash funding and payout in local currencies for consumers using USDC, as well as near-instant settlement capabilities, according to the company.

Luther Maday is the Head of Fintech Strategy and Innovation at MoneyGram. In this interview we discuss how MoneyGram has adopted crypto, partnering with Stellar, using the USDC stablecoin for payment, working with Ripple in the past, crypto regulations, CBDCs, crypto bear market and much more.

We said we’re coming back big for the first IRL TechCrunch Disrupt since 2019, and we’re not kidding. When the doors open October 18-20, you’ll find more than 100 interviews, panel discussions, roundtables, how-tos, breakouts and a plethora of other startup goodness waiting for you.

With the start of the FinovateFall 2022 conference in New York, FinTech Futures chats with MoneyGram chairman and CEO Alex Holmes to get his views on the evolution of cross-border money movement, emerging tech trends in the payments space and what the future holds for the industry.