As payment companies increasingly explore stablecoins for cross-border payments and real-time settlement, some startups are tapping into the zeitgeist by providing liquidity via a revolving line of credit in stablecoins.
One of them is Dubai-based Mansa, whose offering allows payments companies, mainly in Africa to date, to settle transactions and fund customer accounts instantly. The startup has raised $10 million in seed funding including both equity and debt. Stablecoin provider Tether led the $3 million equity investment.
The funds will support the company’s expansion into Latin America and Southeast Asia, regions where liquidity challenges also limit cross-border transactions.
Mansa says its model improves clients’ cash flow at a lower cost than fiat alternatives, positioning it as a key player in the future of payments. Its co-founders, CEO Mouloukou Sanoh and COO Nkiru Uwaje, bring several years of expertise in finance, payments and web3.
Sanoh, an investor in several African fintechs, previously worked at web3 VC firm Adaverse. Uwaje was an innovation manager at SWIFT and led blockchain strategy for Dell in the U.K. and Ireland.
Cross-border payments are crucial to global commerce, but many payment providers face liquidity shortages, leading to delayed settlements and higher operational costs, especially in emerging markets. Remittance costs average 6.5% globally, disproportionately affecting developing regions. With cross-border payments expected to reach $290.2 trillion annually by 2030, inefficiencies in the current system could cost businesses billions.
Mansa says it addresses this by offering fast, flexible embedded pre-funding solutions, completing due diligence in under a month. And unlike traditional lenders, it underwrites loans based on real-time transaction data rather than collateral while sourcing liquidity at scale through decentralized finance (DeFi). It aggregates capital from DeFi platforms, quant funds, family offices, and hedge funds.
For its seed round, Mansa secured $7 million in liquidity from some of these institutions. Meanwhile, other investors that participated in the equity round alongside Tether include Faculty Group, Octerra Capital, Polymorphic Capital, and Trive Digital.
“Payments are moving on chain, but in order for payments to move on chain you need to have the on-chain liquidity to be able to settle instantly,” Sanoh told TechCrunch. “That is why our partnership with Tether is so consequential and why we’re working very closely together to make it the primary stablecoin in emerging markets.”
Despite USDC’s rapid growth last year, the founders said Mansa is bullish on Tether’s USDT due to its broad accessibility, usage flexibility, and market dominance, which continues to expand alongside rising on-chain payment activity, especially in emerging markets.
It also makes sense that Mansa’s customers are not based in Europe, where Tether and nine other digital assets were recently delisted from EU-regulated platforms for not meeting MiCA compliance standards. Tether still holds 70% of the market share, in terms of trading volume, among stablecoins globally.
Still, from a compliance perspective, Mansa says it’s focused on regulatory adherence. The fintech recently hired the former head of HSBC North Asia and the chief legal officer of Franklin Templeton to strengthen its regulatory oversight.
Similarly, the stablecoin liquidity platform says it’s building robust risk frameworks for liquidity and payments, ensuring compliance with AML checks, sanction screening, KYC (Know Your Customer), KYB (Know Your Business), active transaction monitoring, and blockchain analytics tools. “We’re building a fintech, and we approach everything with that mindset,” Nkiru stressed.
Meanwhile, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the stablecoin provider is “proud to collaborate with Mansa and support their efforts to reshape global payment infrastructure.”
So far, Mansa has disbursed over $18 million in payments financed to its clients, with access to over $200 million in liquidity through its partner network. The fintech claims it doesn’t have any defaults so far.
Similarly, its transaction volume has surged since launching six months ago, from $1.6 million last August to $11 million in January, compounding at a monthly growth rate of 37.5%. It has processed nearly $31 million in that period. The company expects to reach a $1 billion total payment volume (TPV) run rate this year, up from its current $240 million run rate, Sanoh disclosed.
The two-year-old fintech serves a broad range of clients, including B2B payment platforms, virtual card providers, stablecoin infrastructure, forex platforms, and remittance companies operating in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.
These clients have reported a 30% increase in transaction volumes and a 10% revenue boost since onboarding, the fintech said. Meanwhile, Mansa’s own revenues — generated from fees on financed transactions — have grown 350% in the past six months.
Lending is Mansa’s starting point. But there’s more it wants to do, according to Sanoh. “We’re starting by being the primary liquidity provider to the biggest payment companies across emerging markets,” CEO Sanoh explained.
“From there, we can handle payouts and also offer additional services like foreign exchange. The goal is to create a one-stop payment platform where they can finance their payments, settle transactions instantly, and access foreign currency seamlessly — all in one place,” said the CEO, adding that it’s an evolution that could see it become an on-chain version of Stripe.