The Problem
Cross-border payments for SMEs in emerging markets are slow, expensive, and unreliable. Traditional financial infrastructure relies on SWIFT, which can take 3-5 days to settle transactions, with fees as high as 12%. This makes it difficult for businesses in Africa to receive payments from international clients and for UK/EU businesses to expand into African markets without financial roadblocks.
While existing FinTech solutions like Wise, Revolut, Payoneer, and VertoFX provide payment services, they only focus on moving money – they don’t address the broader challenges of cross-border trade, such as building trust between buyers and sellers, securing transactions, and providing access to credit.
SMEs trading across borders need more than just payments, they need a full trade finance solution that ensures their transactions are fast, low-cost, and secure while also mitigating risks and providing liquidity.
Our Solution
Kutana Pay is a B2B payments and trade finance platform designed to make cross-border transactions seamless, secure, and cost-effective for SMEs trading in emerging markets. Our platform removes financial barriers and empowers businesses to trade confidently on a global scale.
We offer a three-layered solution that goes beyond simple money transfers:
1. Fast, Low-Cost Cross-Border Payments
Our payment infrastructure eliminates reliance on SWIFT by leveraging a stablecoin-powered treasury system. This enables:
- Instant settlements instead of waiting 3-5 days for transactions to clear.
- Dramatically lower fees (only 1.5% per transaction, up to 60% cheaper than banks and FinTech competitors).
- Multi-currency digital wallets supporting GBP, USD, EUR, and key African currencies, so businesses can send, receive, and hold funds without unnecessary conversions.
2. Secure Transactions with Digital Escrow
A major barrier to cross-border trade is the lack of trust between buyers and sellers, leading to payment disputes and fraud risks. Kutana Pay solves this with:
- Digital escrow services that hold funds securely until both parties meet agreed-upon conditions, ensuring fair and risk-free transactions.
- Automated contract enforcement, allowing businesses to trade without worrying about non-payment or delivery failures.
3. AI-Powered Credit Solutions for SMEs
Many SMEs in emerging markets struggle to access financing, which limits their ability to scale and fulfill larger orders. We solve this with:
- AI-driven credit scoring based on transaction data, rather than requiring traditional financial records.
- Instant access to working capital, allowing businesses to accept and fulfill orders without cash flow constraints.
- Seamless integration of financing into the payment process, making it easier than ever for SMEs to get the funding they need.
Why This Matters
By combining fast payments, built-in transaction security, and SME-friendly credit solutions, Kutana Pay is not just another payments platform – we are building the financial infrastructure that enables global trade for SMEs trading with emerging markets.
The Origins: A Firsthand Frustration with Global Trade
Kutana Pay was born from a real problem our founders encountered while helping European businesses enter African markets.
Before starting Kutana Pay, Nick (CEO) and Sammy (COO) ran Start.Up Lounge Africa, a consulting firm specializing in market entry services for UK/EU businesses expanding into Africa. Through this work, they repeatedly saw the same financial barriers preventing successful trade:
- UK/EU businesses struggled with slow, costly, and complex transactions when trading with African partners.
- African SMEs faced delays, excessive fees, and unreliable payment systems when receiving funds from international clients.
These issues weren’t just minor inconveniences—they were crippling barriers that limited trade and economic growth.
From Insight to Execution
Instead of jumping straight into building a product, we took a lean approach to validate the demand:
- We spoke with hundreds of SMEs operating across emerging markets to refine our solution.
- We sponsored and participated in cross-border trade events, securing 50 customer sign-ups at a single event in Ghana.
- We manually facilitated trade transactions to test real-world pain points and ensure our solution would be valuable.
Through this process, we realized that businesses needed more than just a payment service, they needed an end-to-end solution that provided trust, security, and access to financing.
From Idea to Reality
We incorporated Kutana Pay in October 2023 and officially launched in November 2024. Since then, we have:
- Onboarded 30+ businesses and processed $40K in transactions.
- Beat January projections by 3X, with strong growth continuing.
- Secured $7M in projected transaction volume for 2025, expected to generate $150K in revenue.
- Started onboarding into the UK FCA Regulatory Sandbox, a major step in scaling the business.
- Launch a £900k fundraise to enable us to deliver on our demand and grow our pipeline.
The Vision: Transforming Trade for SMEs
Africa’s $1.5 trillion B2B payments market is 3X the size of Europe’s, yet it remains deeply underserved. By 2050, Africa will be home to 25% of the global population, making it a critical player in global trade.
Our mission is to remove financial barriers for SMEs and unlock new trade opportunities in emerging markets. With Kutana Pay, businesses no longer need to worry about slow, costly, and insecure transactions – they can focus on growth.
Nick Murphy (CEO)
Mohammed Zakari (CTO)
Samuel Opoku (COO)
Mark Owusu Ayim (Lead Engineer)
