In this installment of Executive Insights, we speak with Ousmane Conde, founder and CEO of WODI Money Inc., a global neobanking platform bringing unbanked people into the global economy — turning corner stores into bank branches and phone numbers into payment addresses. With more than two million users and 10,000+ agents across 40+ countries, WODI chose Washington, DC as its U.S. headquarters, with support from the Washington, DC Global Soft Landing Program.
Banking the Other Three Billion
Ousmane Conde’s path to founding WODI runs from Guinea, West Africa, through school in France, to the United States — where he arrived on a Google scholarship and worked alongside the leadership team at Boeing before striking out on his own. WODI is his third company, and the one closest to home.
“We are basically banking three billion people previously excluded from the global financial ecosystem,” Conde said. “Our mission is to include the unbanked into the global payment system.”
An unbanked person, he explains, is someone without a credit card or a bank account — and the problem is not somewhere far away. “One out of four people in America, the largest economy in the world, is unbanked or underbanked.”
“Just imagine how you would pay for your coffee, your transportation, your orders on Netflix,” he said. “We had to solve that problem, and that’s what we’re doing at WODI today.”
The Store Becomes the Bank
WODI’s model turns everyday businesses into financial infrastructure.
“The big idea is this: the store becomes the bank,” Conde said. “If you go to the coffee shop, think of the coffee shop as a bank. The waitress is a kind of bank agent. I want to withdraw $500, I want to deposit $50, I want to send $250 to my mom in Guinea on her mobile wallet.”
The payment device already sitting on the counter handles the rest. What makes WODI different, Conde says, is who the tools are built for.
“We are building the tools, the solutions, with the unbanked in mind,” he said. “WODI is all about giving people freedom to move their money wherever they go — giving them control of the funds. The end goal is to empower people to live the life they were meant to live.”
That ambition runs on serious rails: a five-year exclusive partnership with Visa. “The Visa network is connected to every single bank on the planet,” Conde said. “They have the largest card network in the world, and WODI has access to that entire network.”
“Music to My Ears”
When the chance to put down roots in Washington, DC came up, Conde didn’t need convincing.
“When the DC opportunity came, it was kind of music to my ears,” he said. Strategic meetings with WDCEP’s business attraction team followed. “Extremely talented people. They presented the opportunity to us — what the perks of coming to DC are.”
Then came the Washington, DC Global Soft Landing Program.
“They’re not just telling you — they’re showing you, and they’re giving you access to the resources that you need,” Conde said. WODI needed a business license; the program connected the company with the right resource. It needed office space; the program delivered that too, at a discounted rate. “It’s a very sophisticated system that is put in place to accelerate” a company’s landing, as Conde puts it.
Across the Street from the World Bank
For a global fintech, WODI’s address puts much of the industry within walking distance.
“Our office is right across the street from the World Bank,” Conde said. “IFC is one or two blocks away. The Visa office is not far away. The regulators are right there. The fact that you have all this proximity of decision makers in the same area, with talent in the same area — it enables you to scale very, very rapidly.”
The talent side is no afterthought: most of WODI’s hires are DC-based. “You have the best universities in the world, and it’s a small area,” he said.
“Why Would You Not Move to DC?”
Conde is direct about what he’d tell other founders weighing the move.
“The Soft Landing Program is the best way to move your company to DC — and in the U.S., I have not found any better opportunities,” he said. “There are many states that offer similar perks… but the Soft Landing Program in DC is very sophisticated. I think it should be the reference point for other cities or states.”
“You have the decision makers there. You have the clients. You have the opportunities. And you have a support framework. Why would you not move to DC? That’s the question.”
His answer, for anyone trying to scale a startup: “DC is a very good place to start looking at.”
To hear more from Ousmane Conde and other business leaders choosing Washington, DC, explore the full Executive Insights series.