NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 11 – Financial technology firm Maplerad has processed more than $500 million in transactions as the financial infrastructure firm expands its role in supporting cross-border payments, collections and foreign exchange for businesses operating across Africa.
The milestone comes as African fintechs and global companies increasingly seek alternatives to traditional banking infrastructure, which businesses say can be costly and fragmented across the continent.
Maplerad, which evolved from payments startup Wirepay after its founding in 2020, provides application programming interfaces (APIs) for payments and collections, virtual bank accounts, card issuing, foreign exchange and stablecoin on- and off-ramps.
Co-founder and chief executive Obinna Chukwujioke says the company’s growth accelerated as larger businesses began using its infrastructure for treasury and payment operations rather than relying solely on conventional banking systems.
“The realization that Maplerad was solving a permanent, structural problem, rather than a transient one, came when our transaction volume crossed the $100 million mark, driven heavily by enterprise demand rather than retail spikes,” Chukwujioke said.
He said the subsequent $500 million milestone demonstrated growing demand for programmable financial infrastructure, although the company operates in a market facing regulatory, liquidity and currency risks.
Africa’s fragmented financial system remains a major hurdle for businesses moving money across borders, with differences in regulation, unreliable correspondent banking relationships and volatile local currencies increasing the cost and complexity of transactions.
Maplerad says it has developed an Automated Liquidity and Routing Engine to move transactions across local liquidity pools, digital assets and institutional market makers, while using real-time data to manage liquidity requirements.
“We weren’t just processing volume; we were defining market availability,” Chukwujioke said.
“When we reached the $500 million milestone, it proved that the market wasn’t waiting for legacy banks to upgrade.”
The company has also expanded into dollar-denominated financial services through Roam, which combines US dollar accounts, stablecoin wallets and transfers between the United States and African markets.
However, the infrastructure push comes against a backdrop of heightened scrutiny of digital financial services, particularly around consumer protection, anti-money laundering requirements, foreign exchange controls and the use of digital assets.
Maplerad says compliance and transaction monitoring are embedded in its API infrastructure, while redundancy systems are designed to limit disruptions.
Chukwujioke argues that the continent’s financial infrastructure requires systems designed around its operating realities rather than adaptations of platforms developed for Western markets.
For Maplerad, the challenge now is to translate transaction growth into sustainable infrastructure while navigating the regulatory and liquidity constraints that continue to shape Africa’s rapidly evolving fintech market.
