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Starting your own EMI is it profitable business or not?

B

Blackcrypto

Active Member
Oct 30, 2021
115
20
18
LT
#1
Hey folks,

I have a friend who asked me about some ides about new projects, and when we were talking, i mentioned to EMIs, opening your own EMI and he really liked it. But i don't have much information about it. As i know it cost up to 1M 1.5M EUR to get your license + compliance ++++ bla bla.

He and his friends can get 1.5M EUR. But the question is "is it profitable business or not"? How much they made yearly (EMIs)?

Any advice or suggestions?
 
#2
Blackcrypto said:
Hey folks,

I have a friend who asked me about some ides about new projects, and when we were talking, i mentioned to EMIs, opening your own EMI and he really liked it. But i don't have much information about it. As i know it cost up to 1M 1.5M EUR to get your license + compliance ++++ bla bla.

He and his friends can get 1.5M EUR. But the question is "is it profitable business or not"? How much they made yearly (EMIs)?

Any advice or suggestions?
Click to expand...
It depends on what you use it for. If only as a generic EMI for the public, it will generate little or no profits with just 1.5m Eur budget, as you need much more for proper marketing.
 
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#3
Blackcrypto said:
Hey folks,

I have a friend who asked me about some ides about new projects, and when we were talking, i mentioned to EMIs, opening your own EMI and he really liked it. But i don't have much information about it. As i know it cost up to 1M 1.5M EUR to get your license + compliance ++++ bla bla.

He and his friends can get 1.5M EUR. But the question is "is it profitable business or not"? How much they made yearly (EMIs)?

Any advice or suggestions?
Click to expand...
EUR 2M is reasonable, as per what I have discussed with a friend who owns an EMI in Cyprus, and it will most likely take a year to setup. It can be a decent business if you have good connections (or business synergies) and operate in a jurisdiction where your services can stay ahead of the competition.

Suggestions: do some market research and rough calculations

Smaller operating EMI-s are sold at around EUR 4-5 M in Lithuania.
 
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#5
Theres a lot of variables on an EMI being nicely profitable or just scrapping by. The good thing about EMIs is that theres a lot of white-label solutions to choose from.

If this was my biz I would look at EU countries were the banking sector turbo sucks and market to them, ie Ireland and Greece.
Bonus points if you can get IBANs from those countries.

And as Johny said, make it crypto friendly for both personal and company.
 
#8
TheCryptoAnt said:
Theres a lot of variables on an EMI being nicely profitable or just scrapping by.
Click to expand...
Exactly. This market is highly competitive – and definitely it has some pretty niches, too.
TheCryptoAnt said:
The good thing about EMIs is that theres a lot of white-label solutions to choose from.
Click to expand...
Yes, it is. (It is necessary to choose carefully.)
TheCryptoAnt said:
If this was my biz I would look at EU countries were the banking sector turbo sucks and market to them, ie Ireland and Greece.
Click to expand...
IMO good idea in general; but note that there is a lot of EMIs in Ireland nowadays (mainly descendants of UK ones, born after brexit).
TheCryptoAnt said:
Bonus points if you can get IBANs from those countries.
Click to expand...
A must-have in the concept mentioned, I think.
TheCryptoAnt said:
And as Johny said, make it crypto friendly for both personal and company.
Click to expand...
+1 :) (Of course, it brings troubles with custodian/correspondent banks etc.)
JohnnyDoe said:
You could also target to a specific market outside Europe, like OuiTrust does for China.
Click to expand...
Excellent idea. IMO, the market outside Europe is much less competitive. (Of course, in many cases more risky.)
 
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#10
Blackcrypto said:
Hey folks,

I have a friend who asked me about some ides about new projects, and when we were talking, i mentioned to EMIs, opening your own EMI and he really liked it. But i don't have much information about it. As i know it cost up to 1M 1.5M EUR to get your license + compliance ++++ bla bla.

He and his friends can get 1.5M EUR. But the question is "is it profitable business or not"? How much they made yearly (EMIs)?

Any advice or suggestions?
Click to expand...


Dude, have you found a free a html template for a crypto exchange which you were looking for a half a year ago? :)

Do your friends who can raise EUR 1.5M really exist?
 
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#11
With such amounts available your friend should have the resources it requires to find all the information needed to get started.

EMI's is huge business, as mentioned here already there are a lot of spaces and gaps in the current services that can be covered with a new EMI.

Personally Wise is still the best of all of them I have tried.
 
#12
Overall s**t business, tons of competitors and very few make money. Requires big investments for license, compliance etc. Many of them are just Russian laundromats disguised as real businesses.

Revolut is still losing money and it's tough to compete with companies that offer everything for free and don't care about losing money for a decade just to gain marketplace dominance.

I guess it could be profitable if you onboard high risk customers and charge them high monthly fees or a % of incoming\outgoing wires. Need to find a niche that the market doesn't yet cover. I wouldn't go anywhere near this business, seems like a great way to burn money.
 
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#13
GeneralGogol said:
Overall **** business, tons of competitors and very few make money. Requires big investments for license, compliance etc. Many of them are just Russian laundromats disguised as real businesses.

Revolut is still losing money and it's tough to compete with companies that offer everything for free and don't care about losing money for a decade just to gain marketplace dominance.

I guess it could be profitable if you onboard high risk customers and charge them high monthly fees or a % of incoming\outgoing wires. Need to find a niche that the market doesn't yet cover. I wouldn't go anywhere near this business, seems like a great way to burn money.
Click to expand...

Might be a bit late to the party indeed. If you had the same idea in 2010 (such as the guys who founded Transferwise (now Wise) it could be a different story.

Type-and-number-of-payment-licences-issued-over-time-in-the-European-Union-cumulative.webp


Since 2007 the number of credit institutions in the EU has steadily dropped from 8.3k to 5.2k.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/349544/eu-eurozone-credit-institutions-number/
Now, as the EU is moving toward implementing CBDC-s, the number of banks is expected to reduce to 1. While it might sound innovative with all the crypto and web3 hype, it's actually the good old soviet system, which used to be known as Gosbank: Gosbank - Wikipedia

Based on that, it seems like a good time to exit the banking industry.
 
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#15
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#17
fanban said:
With such amounts available your friend should have the resources it requires to find all the information needed to get started.
Click to expand...
Generally – yes. But trying to call here for some opinions is IMO not a bad idea :)
 
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