Nov. 15, 2018 | by Elliot Maras
Sir Richard Branson shares a light hearted moment with Nuno Sebastiao at Money20/20. Photo courtesy of Money20/20.
Many of us go through a phase of wanting to change the world, usually while in school, before the challenges of surviving in a problematic world destroy that desire. Sir Richard Branson, the British billionaire entrepreneur, philanthropist and visionary, never outgrew that passion. Branson shared his insights about the need for entrepreneurs to serve as engines for change during the recent Money20/20 conference in Las Vegas.
While financial services is only one of many industries Branson has attempted to disrupt with a strong focus on consumers, it has been one of the more challenging ones, due to the dominance of existing players. Virgin Money, Branson's financial services company, has focused on making financial services easy for customers to understand.
"There's no point in existing if you're not going to be the consumer's friend," Branson told interviewer Nuno Sebastiao, CEO of Feedzai. "Your business is going to shrivel up and die, particularly if you're taking on five massive banks." If your products are better than the competition's, your staff will be more committed, he said.
Branson is already active in the mobile payments space through two of his companies, Virgin Money and Virgin Mobile.
Virgin Money South Africa — which provides services for savings, credit cards and more — recently released an upgrade of Virgin Money Spot, its P2P payment app in partnership with wiGroup, a Cape Town, South Africa based mobile software company, according to an email sent to Mobile Payments Today. Virgin Money Spot is only available in the South African market.
Under the Spot 3.0 upgrade, the mobile payment app uses blockchain technology to improve security and speed, the company stated. The app will enable users without 3D-secure bank cards to transfer funds via their bank accounts. A Spot customer can top-up their wallet using a 3D-secure enabled credit card, or by making an EFT deposit from their bank account into their wallet. The customer doesn’t have to link their bank account for payments to be made into their Spot wallet. They only need to link a bank account when they want to cash-out value in their wallet.
Virgin Money Spot marks Branson’s second blockchain investment, following his support for a blockchain development company called Blockchain, which has raised $70 million from investors from Wall Street, Silicon Valley and London.
Branson’s Virgin Group, meanwhile, supports mobile payments through its Virgin Mobile company, which provides telecom services in the U.K. and the U.S. In September, Virgin Mobile introduced a mobile app to make it easier for customers to track spending and deploy spending caps to prevent exceeding their minutes, texts and data limits, according to a company press release.
Committed to fintech
The Virgin Group stated in an email to Mobile Payments Today that Branson has plans to invest in fintech, but did not elaborate. During the Money20/20 presentation Branson cited his investment in blockchain, along with bitcoin, Twitter and Transferwise, the money transfer company.
"We felt that blockchain was something we should invest in," Branson told Sebastiao. "There is a very exciting future in the whole area."
Reflecting on his career, which has included the formation of more than 300 businesses, Branson told Sebastiao he was lucky because he began one of his first businesses, the Virgin Atlantic airline, at a time when the airlines were "abysmal," as were trains and banks. "Everything was abysmal and nobody worried about the consumer," he said. "We were able to come in on a white horse and be a knight."
"Nowadays it's slightly more difficult because a lot of these big companies have learned to care," he said, citing Delta Airlines, the world's largest airline.
A fast rise
Branson did not let dyslexia stop him from starting a magazine at age 15 to oppose the war the U.S. was waging in Vietnam. At the time, he did not see himself as a businessman as much as a proponent for social change.
At age 28, Branson had a flight to the Virgin Islands canceled because the airline decided there weren't enough passengers booked. He did not like the fact that an airline could arbitrarily make a decision that inconvenienced people, so he decided to buy an airline and operate it his own way. This led to the creation of the Virgin Atlantic airline.
Virgin Atlantic has survived because customers like it, Branson said. Building a successful business in a competitive industry like air travel requires providing service superior to the competition.
"If you're going to take on a giant, you're going to have to better than them," he said.
A touch of humor and space travel
Sebastiao then switched the focus to Branson's reputation for humor and asked him what he saw as his best PR stunts. Branson cited building a UFO on April Fool's Day that got London radio stations' attention. The police were on hand when the UFO landed in a field and blew smoke from its door, reminiscent of a scene from the movie, "E.T. — The Extra-Terrestrial."
As for space travel, which many see as Branson's most exciting venture, Sebastiao wanted to know how Branson planned to make it a reality for mainstream people through his startup, Virgin Galactic. Branson said he did not venture into space travel with a return on investment in mind.
"I was absolutely sure that one day I would go to space," he said, adding that he began hiring engineers for this venture in 1991. Fourteen years ago, there were 500 engineers working on it. Now there are 800. He believes Virgin Galactic will be the first commercial space travel company, and they are on the verge of a commercial space flight.
Many clapped when Branson asked the audience how many of them would like to travel in outer space.
Commitment to entrepreneurs
Branson didn't waste any time getting to his current focus, Virgin Unite, an organization he created to unite people and entrepreneurial ideas to improve the world. The organization has supported more than 4,000 entrepreneurs worldwide, he said.
"We can't leave it up to governments to solve our problems in the world," Branson said. Businesses need to address the world's problems, such as climate change and drug addiction.
Drug addiction, he said, should be treated as a health problem and not as criminal one. Sebastiao agreed, adding that his home country, Portugal, reduced its opioid addiction problem by taking this approach.
Branson ended the discussion by pointing out that the money he was paid to attend Money20/20 has all been directed to charity.
Topics: Bitcoin, Mobile Apps, Money Transfer / P2P, Region: EMEA
Elliot Maras
Elliot Maras is the editor of KioskMarketplace.com and FoodTruckOperator.com.
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