Lumepay, the Cape Town-based cross-border funds firm constructed for SMEs, corporates and establishments that want to maneuver cash throughout Africa and into world markets, is launching in Kenya this month, the first market on its African enlargement roadmap. It arrives with regulatory clearance in hand, in the type of a letter of no objection, and a licensed native accomplice, and it is going to be on the floor at the Africa Blockchain Fest in Nairobi from 15 to 17 October.
Its chief working officer, Luc Varejes, spoke to The Fintech Times about the structural downside Lumepay is constructed to unravel, why Kenya is a hub relatively than a single-market play, what the launch means in observe for Kenyan companies, and the place the firm needs to be in 5 years.
Fixing the plumbing
For Varejes, the hole Lumepay is closing will not be a product hole however a structural one. “For decades, moving value across African borders has meant going through a fragmented web of correspondent banks, multiple intermediaries and layered currency conversions. Each step adds cost, delay and uncertainty,” he mentioned. By Lumepay’s estimate the result’s a system that prices African companies round 5 billion {dollars} a 12 months in inefficiencies, “and for a business, that shows up as tied-up working capital, unpredictable settlement times and pricing that is hard to plan around.”
The firm’s reply is to work on the infrastructure itself relatively than the interface on prime of it. “Our focus is on fixing the plumbing,” Varejes mentioned. “We are building regional payment corridors and deep liquidity pools across the SADC and WAEMU regions, which strengthens Africa’s financial connectivity both within the continent and with the rest of the world.” Operationally which means combining “the reach and reliability of traditional payment infrastructure with the speed and efficiency of stablecoin rails”, which he mentioned provides companies “faster settlement, more competitive and predictable pricing, and the confidence that their payments will arrive when they need them to.”
Why Kenya, and why now
Varejes gave three causes for selecting Kenya as the first cease. The first is commerce. “The South Africa-Kenya corridor is a fastest-growing trade route. South African and Kenyan businesses are trading with each other more than ever, but the payment infrastructure hasn’t kept pace,” he mentioned. “Settling a supplier invoice between Johannesburg and Nairobi still too often means going through correspondent banks in another currency, with the delays and costs that come with it.”
The second is geography. Kenya has one of the most mature digital funds ecosystems in the world, pushed largely by cell cash, and robust regional hyperlinks into Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and past. “For us, Kenya isn’t a single-market play,” Varejes mentioned. “It’s the hub that connects our southern and western corridors to the broader East African Community.”
The third is that the volumes exist already. He pointed to the 2025 remittances family survey by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and the Central Bank of Kenya, which discovered that Kenyan households obtained an estimated KSh931.8 billion from overseas between June 2024 and May 2025, whereas residents despatched KSh40.5 billion out of the nation over the similar interval. “And that’s only the household side,” he mentioned. “Money crosses Kenya’s borders every day to finance trade, pay suppliers and fund investment. The demand for faster, more cost-effective cross-border payments is clear.”
As for the timing: “The market is ready, and so are we. With regulatory clearance in place and a licensed local partner, we can enter Kenya with the right foundations to serve businesses from day one.”
What the launch means in observe
Asked what Kenyan companies will truly be capable to do from launch, Varejes described a set of concrete use instances. A enterprise pays worldwide suppliers in the provider’s personal foreign money, akin to US {dollars} or Chinese yuan, so an SME settling offshore invoices “can settle in each supplier’s preferred currency faster, and without costly conversions. Suppliers get paid in their expected currency.”
Businesses working in Kenya may also entry US {dollars} immediately. “No more funds stuck in transit for months,” he mentioned. “Businesses can confidently grow across Africa, with the certainty that money moves.” A service provider making bulk funds pays “quickly and compliantly across many recipients and currencies at once, settling hundreds of payouts in a single flow.” Alongside that sit diversified methods to ship and obtain native and different currencies, together with USDT on-ramps and off-ramps and M-Pesa, and fee hyperlinks.
Where Lumepay sits
The distinction Varejes attracts from the relaxation of the market begins with the rails. “We use our own stablecoin infrastructure, built and supported by us, to make every payment more efficient,” he mentioned. Lumepay’s personal account of its place is that its benefit lies in creating sturdy conventional, digital (stablecoin-enabled) and FX capabilities that collectively compound in worth: working depth throughout conventional banking rails, stablecoins and FX, the place the market tends to supply one or two of the three, and “going to market with all three, from the get-go, with deep African context.”
He is candid that the hardest half will not be know-how however liquidity. “Africa has its unique challenges: FX liquidity limitations at financial institutions, settlements that take weeks, laborious compliance processes. Deep liquidity that moves and routes with efficiency is key to moving value, and takes years to build up. We’ve already built it and are actively growing and optimising our liquidity.” Every founder, he added, has personally arrange, scaled or led capabilities inside cross-border funds companies. “We are accelerating, not researching.”
In Varejes’s description, Lumepay sits throughout the full transaction lifecycle. “Currency exchange, liquidity management, clearing, payments collections and disbursements, and settlement infrastructure, all within a single licensed perimeter. Customers operate through one integrated platform rather than coordinating across multiple vendors and intermediaries.” The position, he mentioned, extends past being a conversion or pay-out venue: “Lumepay is the end-to-end cross-border solutions and infrastructure layer that supports execution, post-trade processing, reconciliation, and settlement across multiple rails and jurisdictions.”
That can also be how he frames the firm’s relationship with the incumbents. “The ecosystem we are building is not about replacing every existing provider, it is about creating the connective infrastructure that lets the broader financial system operate seamlessly, efficiently, and transparently across borders.”
Lumepay’s aggressive benefit
According to Lumepay, its aggressive place rests on combining conventional banking infrastructure, stablecoin-enabled fee rails and international trade capabilities, alongside expertise working in African markets.
- Business mannequin and infrastructure. Lumepay says its staff has expertise throughout conventional banking, stablecoins and FX. Its technique is to deliver these capabilities collectively in a single providing, relatively than relying on one or two elements.
- Africa-specific understanding. The firm identifies restricted FX liquidity, prolonged settlement processes and demanding compliance necessities as challenges in African cross-border funds. It says creating deep, effectively routed liquidity is central to addressing them.
- Execution and velocity to market. Lumepay says its founders have established, scaled or led cross-border funds capabilities, bringing operational expertise and current capabilities to the enterprise.
- Stablecoin-enabled settlement. The firm views stablecoins as a software for transferring worth and expects broader adoption as regulation and entry develop. It argues that liquidity, licences and connections to conventional banking stay vital to scaling these companies.
The subsequent 5 years
Kenya is the first market on the roadmap, and Varejes set out the 5 outcomes Lumepay is constructing in the direction of over the subsequent 5 years: a diversified buyer base throughout markets and sectors, with attain and common funds exercise throughout key African markets; dependable and controlled multi-corridor fee infrastructure, liquidity and market protection; the strongest wholesale pricing and deepest liquidity throughout all African foreign money pairs; key licences throughout all main African markets; and a strong, high-speed stablecoin settlement layer.
Stablecoin adoption, he argued, strengthens relatively than threatens that place. “As it becomes more regulated and accessible, more players will naturally try capture the opportunity, but we will be at the forefront of the ecosystem and capabilities built around it to successfully scale: deep, diversified liquidity across corridors; the licensing to operate legally in each market; and the bridge between stablecoin and traditional banking that moves value reliably.”
On the floor in Nairobi
Lumepay will probably be at the Africa Blockchain Fest from 15 to 17 October, and Varejes sees the occasion as the proper place to begin. “It brings together the people building the next phase of African finance and trade. We strongly believe in being on the ground so we can hear directly from the people we aim to serve.”
The message he needs individuals to go away with is an easy one. “Lumepay’s focus is helping African businesses grow beyond their home markets without payment friction getting in the way.”
AI stage 1 of 5: written by Darlyn Ho; AI helped with tone, construction or wording; edited and signed off by Mark Walker, Editorial Director. What the levels mean
