In a recent article on Stellar (XLM), Bernardo Garcia, co-founder of Félix, shared his journey and motivation behind creating an innovative payments platform to help Latino immigrants living in the U.S. A WhatsApp-based payments platform, Félix solves a critical problem faced by many immigrants by allowing users to send money to their relatives in Latin America.
Overcoming financial barriers
Garcia’s experience when he arrived in the United States highlighted the inefficiencies and high costs associated with the traditional banking system. He shared a personal story of losing 5% of his savings on a single international transfer due to bank fees. This experience highlighted the need for a more efficient and cost-effective solution for remittances.
“When I first came here, I had to do an international wire transfer from my Mexican bank account to my American bank account. I lost 5% of my savings in that one transaction,” Garcia explained. “Imagine 5% of your hard earned money or savings disappearing in one transaction. It was a really sad day.”
Felix’s Inspiration
Garcia and his co-founder Manuel were inspired by the plight of Latino immigrants, who often face greater financial barriers. Garcia emphasized that the Latino community is the fastest-growing demographic in the U.S. and is still largely underserved by traditional financial institutions.
“We had a very specific group in mind: the number of immigrants coming to the United States every year, a significant number of whom are Latinos like me, who are completely underserved,” Garcia said. “You can’t have a problem that big in a group that has that many people. We just wanted to help them.”
Felix’s influence
Félix was built with the goal of providing a stable and affordable solution for immigrants to send money back home. Garcia and Manuel were inspired by people they knew personally, such as Ophelia and Tere, who provided cleaning services, and Guadalupe and Augustine, who worked hard but struggled with the high cost of remittances.
“Manuel also knew people like Guadalupe and Augustin, who were very close to his brother, who were always working hard and trying to make the most of their money, and then getting crushed every time they had to move it,” Garcia said. “So those were the people we had in mind when we were creating Felix.”
For more from Bernardo Garcia, visit the original Stellar blog post.
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