Expanding your startup into Africa is one of the most ambitious and potentially rewarding moves you can make as a founder. With a rapidly digitalising economy and a booming young population, the continent offers a growth trajectory that is hard to find elsewhere. However, as you begin to scale, you will quickly realise that the financial landscape is not a monolith. Navigating 54 different countries means managing dozens of volatile currencies and banking systems.
The system powering global payments often feels like the last relic of the pre-internet age. Businesses today operate across borders as a matter of routine, yet the friction of moving money internationally continues to stifle growth, delay operations, and erode profit margins that are crucial for scaling. For many UK SMEs looking to expand their footprint, the promise of global trade often clashes directly with the archaic reality of legacy banking infrastructure.
Zelle, the bank-owned service that facilitates consumer money movement, said it plans to expand its services internationally. Zelle will rely on stablecoins to enable cross-border money movement, according to a statement Friday from Early Warning Services LLC, Zelle's parent company. All Zelle network banks will have the option to provide the service, according to the statement. Financial-technology firms such as Wise Plc have long operated in the cross-border money-movement space, but the banks' scale gives them an advantage in the crowded market.
Founded in 2024 by Anthony Jacob (pictured), a former Taptap Send executive, Nila was born from Jacob's personal struggle to coordinate vaccines and care for his elderly parents in Sri Lanka during the pandemic. "We face an ageing population of huge proportion," Jacob said. "Younger professionals working abroad often shoulder the responsibility of caring for ageing parents remotely. At Nila, we bridge that gap - providing smarter, more efficient, cross-border eldercare that keeps families connected and informed every step of the way."
Traditional banks rely on legacy systems that were never designed for the speed and scale of global business today. This is why Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs) are currently changing the market. An EMI is a licensed financial entity that can issue electronic money, provide IBAN accounts, process payments, and hold client funds in safeguarded accounts. Unlike banks, EMIs cannot offer traditional loans or credit, but they can do almost everything else when it comes to facilitating digital payments.
