Pangea Money Transfer, a mobile-centric remittance platform for sending money from the U.S. to 15 countries across Asia and Latin America, announced today that veteran product executive Shafiq Shariff has joined the company as VP of Product. Shariff, who spent six years leading product teams at Groupon, becoming the Head of Product at Groupon Goods where he oversaw the launch of the Groupon Goods Marketplace, will report directly to Pangea CEO Nishu Thukral. Shariff will be responsible for leading the company’s global product development and product analytics efforts.

Shariff brings nearly two decades of tech and product development experience to his new role from companies such as Microsoft, ShopRunner and Groupon. Shariff was instrumental in the success of the aforementioned Groupon Goods Marketplace, which led to an incremental $102 million in annualized revenue within six months of launch.

“We are thrilled to welcome Shafiq to our leadership team at Pangea,” said Thukral. “With his proven track record of bringing products to market that drive revenue, I have no doubt that he will be a great addition to Pangea and will help us both create new products and continue to refine our current offerings to drive more value to our existing customers.”

Shariff’s role is crucial in Pangea’s strategy to continue providing low-cost money transfers to immigrants and their families back home. His current focus areas include building out ACH origination and creating a metrics-driven product culture.

“As an immigrant myself -- I grew up in Kenya before coming to the U.S. via Canada -- I can’t wait to work for a company with a mission that is so personally relevant to my own experiences,” said Shariff. “I love being able to build products that have a deep impact on customers and help make their lives easier.”

Shariff graduated from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada with a Bachelor of Math in Computer Science.