👋 Welcome to the new readers who’ve joined us since last week. You’re joining 176,000+ other subscribers who love fintech.
Habari fintech friends,
Ah, what a weekend it has been. After 38 grueling days of competition, Spain has finally been crowned the 2026 World Cup champions. Africa was represented by 10 teams in the tournament. Among those nations, Ivory Coast is widely known for its massive agriculture footprint, exporting roughly $141m worth of coffee annually (averaging around 72,000 metric tons).
Coffee and raw commodities have long been the traditional face of African trade. But do you know what else Africa is aggressively exporting? Fintechs.
This week, Nigerian-founded crossborder payment powerhouse Payaza pushed the boundaries of African tech exports by officially expanding into Oceania, securing full regulatory approvals in both Australia and New Zealand. In New Zealand, they are now registered as a Money Transfer Service (MTS) provider, while in Australia they have locked down licenses as an Independent Remittance Dealer and Virtual Asset Service Provider.
They aren't alone. Earlier this year, South Africa’s TymeBank aggressively scaled its GoTyme neobanking and biometric kiosk model deep into Southeast Asia (the Philippines and Vietnam), quickly becoming one of the fastest-growing digital banks in the APAC region. At the same time, infrastructure heavyweights like Flutterwave and Interswitch's Verve exported their back-end routing rails globally, anchoring major integrations with platforms like PayPal's Xoom and global digital merchants across more than 180 countries.
What does this mean? African fintechs are outgrowing their home markets and hunting for larger, more profitable transaction volumes globally. Faced with currency fluctuations and fragmented regulations across the continent, expanding to wealthier markets in Asia and Oceania allows them to secure stable foreign currency revenues.
Expect these companies to aggressively target diaspora remittance corridors and global B2B trade, turning African brewed fintechs and fintech infrastructures into a highly competitive, global infrastructure standard.
- Jovin
Please find another week of fintech news below:
The Rundown
🏦 M&A
SeamlessHR rebranded to Seamless Technologies while expanding its services into AI and embedded finance.
🚀 Product Launches
SCRYPT expanded its stablecoin settlement infrastructure across several nations located within East Africa.
Paystack added Pesalink to enable customers to make direct bank payments in Kenya.
Klump and Jumia launched an installment payment feature designed specifically for retail shoppers.
Rwanda launched full interoperability features on its eKash national digital payment system.
Accrue successfully introduced stablecoin banking services tailored specifically for various African businesses.
💸 Fundraises
Renew Capital selected fifteen African startups, including Kenya's Zendawa, for its venture lab.
🗂️ Other News
Interswitch appointed Geoffrey Njuguna to serve as the new managing director for Kenya.
Moniepoint appointed Rose Muturi to lead and oversee its corporate operations in Kenya.
Mastercard and Flash partnered to boost and accelerate digital payment systems within DRC.
Nearpays' artificial intelligence fintech platform won the United Nations' Global AI for Good Award.
Airtel Money Madagascar and Baobab Bank partnered to expand their mobile banking services.
Flutterwave partnered with Xoom to expand cross-border remittance services directly into Nigeria.
SunFintech partnered with Flutterwave to strengthen cross-border payment networks throughout Africa.
Payaza officially expanded its financial services and operational footprint into Australia and New Zealand.
Quote of the Week
Fun Stuff
🤓 Trivia of the week
Africa has never won the FIFA World Cup like Spain yesterday. But in one fintech metric, Africa leads the entire world. Which one?
(Answer at the closing remarks)
Editor’s Picks
Visa is building stablecoins into the rails it already runs.
The company launched the Visa Stablecoin Platform, a system that lets banks and fintechs handle stablecoins inside their existing Visa payment and treasury workflows.
How to name your baby unicorn.
A whimsical analysis of startup funding in Africa based on venture naming
Buy now, work later
Olumuyiwa Olowogboyega breaks down how tech platforms monetize upskilling programs by embedding financing directly into professional training courses.
Did you guess this week's trivia right?
So, Africa has never won the FIFA World Cup. But in fintech? The continent leads the entire world in stablecoin ownership at 79%. Not because we Africans love crypto, but because volatile currencies and expensive remittance fees made stablecoins the most practical financial tool available. The rest of the world is still catching up.
That’s all for today friends. See you next Monday.
Asante.
