Telr Announces CFO and Reveals Key Partnership to storm payment gateway industry

Telr has announced the formation of a strategic partnership with Aramex, the regional leader in logistics, and with the hiring of Sirish Kumar as CFO and Co-Founder, is set to revolutionize the payment gateways in Middle East, Africa and South East Asia.

Within a few short months of announcing its launch in March '14, Telr, the multi-currency and multi-lingual payment gateway for SMEs, has rapidly boost its credentials through collaborations with strong incumbents in the business. Telr will leverage on this deal to change the online and mobile payments industry through its three pillars of payment gateway, unified logistics and payment APIs, and cash management solutions.

"The combination of right partners, right technology, right funding, unique value proposition and strong team will set Telr apart and give us an unmatched kick start in the UAE first and across all emerging markets later on," says Elias Ghanem, CEO and Co-Founder of Telr. "Telr’s ambition to revolutionize the payment gateway landscape across all emerging markets has attracted the right talents to Telr and Aramex to partner with us. I am very proud and happy to welcome Sirish Kumar, our new CFO on board and honoured by Aramex support in this early stage of our new adventure”

Sirish Kumar has joined the Telr team as CFO and Co-Founder. Sirish brings an exceptional track record in financing solutions, building strategic partnerships and Mergers & Acquisitions, acquired in his years in Motorola, Nokia and Cargill. Sirish was the former Head of Finance of PayPal South East Asia and India. “The Telr venture perfectly matches my desire to build a new venture from scratch and help revolutionize the eCommerce landscape. The Telr ambition to solve three key fundamental challenges to any e-commerce player in emerging markets resonated very well with me and made me transition from the corporate world to this new exciting journey. I strongly believe that with the right people, technical solutions and partners, Telr will significantly impact the industry. I look forward to contributing to Telr’s success”, said Kumar, CFO and Co-Founder of Telr.

With the core team and right partnership in place, Telr is able to offer a three-pillar value proposition for merchants utilizing its service.
• First, Telr will focus on providing convenience through its secure multi-lingual and multi-currency payment gateway.
• Second, Telr merchants will have peace of mind with seamless transactions through the unified logistics and payment API.
• Third, to help with cash flow issues that plague all businesses, merchants may request for a cash advance on their transactions to boost their growth.

Partnering with a comprehensive logistics solution firm like Aramex is a huge win for Telr. As the e-Commerce market heats up, Telr will be able to rely on preferred services to be offered to its customers. The biggest value added to the merchants will undoubtedly come from the unified payment and logistics APIs integration solution that Telr will be offering to its customer base. Aramex and Telr are committed to joint efforts to find alternative solutions to the major challenge of ‘Cash on Delivery’.

“Aramex is always looking for innovative business partners in the ecommerce space. We believe Telr has a very unique and strong value proposition that will help accelerate the industry in our region, by combining all the key components that will make ecommerce thrive - logistics coupled with payments" says Hassan Mikail - Global Director of E-Commerce at Aramex.

Due to the scale of the operations and rigorous security testing, Telr is currently aiming to be operational in Q3 of 2014. Telr will initially focus on Dubai, with further regional expansion in the Middle East and North Africa following soon after from its Operational HQ in Dubai and will keep a very engaged eye on South East Asia through its headquarters in Singapore (part of Financial Tech startup accelerator GHX).

With these new partnerships, Telr is now able to offer its three pillars of service to help eCommerce start-ups build up and grow much faster, easier and local.

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Further information:

Telr.com - Your Currency. Your Language - is a set of unified APIs and tools that instantly enable businesses to accept and manage online payments via web & mobile.
Please visit the following links for more information:

www.telr.com
www.facebook.com/telrdotcom
@telrdotcom
www.linkedin.com/company/telr?trk=top_nav_home
blog.telr.com/

Elias Ghanem, CEO and co-founder of Telr.com, was the former MD of PayPal Middle East and North Africa and previously MD of PayPal South East Asia and India, a long-time senior executive at Visa Inc., Mr. Ghanem is a proven payment industry leader with a strong entrepreneurial drive and years of success in managing e-payment solutions. He has developed strategic partnerships and customer acquisition programs leading growth in top line, bottom line, market share and shareholder value worldwide, and has a solid track record of breakthrough results in regional leadership roles at PayPal/eBay, Visa, and Accor Group in the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Fluent in five languages, and a 2013 nominee for the Arabian Business “Mentor of the Year” award, Mr. Ghanem is recognized as an inspiring, collaborative leader with solid influencing skills and ability to motivate and lead people in diverse cultural environments. He holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from University of Miami, Fl, USA.

Sirish Kumar, CFO and co-founder of Telr.com has held leadership positions in global firms such as Motorola, Nokia, Cargill and most recently at PayPal across mature and emerging markets. He has leveraged his expertise in commercial negotiations, financial modelling, and integration post- acquisition to facilitate growth of new businesses (such as increasing top line from $5 M to $100 M in less than 12 months). He has led geographical expansion strategies in several emerging markets. He has also developed financing solutions for B2B models, in collaboration with credit insurers and banks, leading to more than 100% top line profitable growth in new markets. He focuses on developing a structure that is scalable and flexible to adapt to rapid changes. Mr Kumar is an angel investor and advisor to start ups. He is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Master of Business Administration degree from INSEAD.

Aramex is a leading global provider of comprehensive logistics and transportation solutions. Established in 1982 as an express operator, the company rapidly evolved into a global brand recognized for its customized services and innovative multi-product offering. Today, Aramex employs more than 13,900 people in over 354 locations across 60 countries, and has a strong alliance network providing worldwide presence. The range of services offered by Aramex includes international and domestic express delivery, freight forwarding, logistics and warehousing, records and information Management solutions, e-business solutions, and online shopping services.

GHX (Gilcrux Holdings) is one of the world’s most innovative investment holding companies. Founded by South African serial entrepreneur, John Fearon, GHX holds his equity in a growing number of exciting startups and established businesses. Spread across many industries, all entities in the GHX portfolio have in common to add technology to traditional businesses (financial services, insurance, invoice factoring, site back-ups, contracting hiring) to accelerate market penetration and improve on consumer experience in a cost-effective and fast growing manner.
www.ghx.co

For more details, please contact:
Peter Yu - Head of Public Relations - GHX
peter.yu@ghx.co
+65 9451 9142