In Brief

• Global business settlement is evolving with stablecoins, offering speed, transparency, and cost savings over legacy banking.

• Conduit’s fintech platform enables real-time, cross-border B2B payments powered by stablecoins and FX optimization.

• The firm’s regulatory focus and local partnerships support secure, scalable global settlement in emerging markets like Africa.

Digital assets have refined global business payments drastically. The efficiency of stablecoins, CBDCs, and cryptocurrency has shaken traditional banking infrastructure, threatening extinction if legacy systems do not adapt.

The result has led to a drastic rise of fintech firms whose main focus is to fix slow wire transfers, opaque fee structures, and clunky banking interfaces.

In this particular scenario, Conduit, a US-based fintech, has taken the mantle to overhaul global business payments since 2021, and the firm recently set up sites in Africa.

From DeFi Ambitions to Solving Real-World Payments

As with all startups, Conduit’s rise to fame sparked interest from investors and users. Its approach to leveraging blockchain for faster, cheaper, and more accessible international money movements landed a $36 million Series A funding led by Dragonfly Capital.

This funding significantly enabled the fintech firms to establish their roots, but soon enough, the 2022 Crypro crash didn’t leave it unscathed.

There is no such thing as bad fame; the Terra and FTX crash brought global attention to digital assets and their capabilities.

Kirill Gertman, Conduit CEO, stated:

“We moved from focusing on building integrated decentralized finance tools to enabling cross-border payments for businesses using stablecoins and harnessing the power of blockchain.”

The shift from a fractured DeFi ecosystem would provide a pathway to addressing a key aspect of many new and veteran to the space required tangibility.

“When we shifted to a cross-border payments product, it was about realizing we needed a more differentiated and defensible offering… cross-border payments in emerging markets was a much more clear and urgent problem to solve,”

Gertman emphasized.

The Engine: Stablecoins and a Consolidated Fee Model

With a newfound drive and a better understanding of what digital assets require, Conduit moved to introduce a feature that would guarantee safety, stability, and yield generation: stablecoins.

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Stablecoins have formed the heart of Africa’s crypto ecosystem. Within the past decade, these digital assets have steadily become a preferred alternative.

The core aspects of these digital assets grant Conduit significant speed and efficiency advantages. However, Conduit relies more on its cost and transparency.

“Our platform is built to move money across borders. FX is one of the pieces that makes that possible, but our customers aren’t being double-charged; they are charged for moving money from point A to point B.”

Essentially, Conduit couples FIX conversion and transaction costs at a single upfront rate, eliminating hidden fees and providing clear pricing.

This provides fast cross-border transactions without any added fees.

As a result, the firm earns revenue from the difference between the rate it secures when converting currencies and the rate it offers its customers.

The firms argue that stablecoin FX rates provide a better alternative than traditional intermediaries like banks.

This approach translates into tangible stablecoin remittance savings for their clients.

Growth Fueled by Geography and Embedded Integration

“We see a lot of growth from people wanting to make payments from the US internationally. We are seeing huge traction in Brazil and in Asia right now. A big focus of our Series A investment round is geographic expansion of our payments network.”

Conduit fintech is operational in nine countries, supporting 14 currencies while also partnering with 20+ local banks.

“Braza owns the largest Brazilian foreign exchange bank and launched their stablecoin tied to the Brazilian Real… They have integrated that functionality directly into the Conduit platform,”

Gertman described.

Integrating blockchain into global business payments is no easy feat. Gaining trust is a key factor the firm already accounted for with its anti-money laundering (AML) protocols, sanctions screening, and transaction monitoring directly into its system.

Compliance has now become a necessity, and if the firms seek to set up crypto payment APIs in Africa, ensuring they can prove their legitimacy is a key factor.

“We made the decision last year not to be profitable but operate very close to breakeven, to focus on growth. We are thoughtful about expanding to where there is most demand for our product, which means there is little tradeoff between expansion and profitability,”

The Invisible Infrastructure Revolution

“Our vision is to build the most seamless and scalable global payments network in the world that can replace correspondent banking,” Gertman declared.

Providing stablecoin payment solutions is, by no means, an easy feat. In Africa, various factors, such as the growing financial regulations within regions like Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria, affect the market as a whole.

While their model shares similarities with other fintech tackling global business payments, Conduit seeks a deeper approach. Collaborating with local financial infrastructure provides insights into what issues the local man has. It focuses on high-frequency business use cases like payroll and supplier payments beyond just a crypto payments API.

Their success hinges on executing this vision while navigating escalating competition and the ever-evolving landscape of global financial regulation.

For businesses burdened by archaic systems, Conduit’s stablecoin payment solutions represent a promising pathway toward truly frictionless global business payments.

Early adopters seeking a Conduit fintech review often highlight the tangible benefits of speed and cost reduction.