The archive · Money & Fintech · Strategic decision · 2023–2025
Waza's B2B dollar-liquidity bet: $280K to $70M monthly volume, then Lync
YC-backed Waza bet African businesses would pay for fast, cheap supplier payments and dollar liquidity; $70M monthly volume, then Lync added banking.
Waza
What the business is
A Y Combinator-backed B2B payments and liquidity platform: African businesses and multinationals use it to pay global suppliers, access dollar liquidity and manage treasury, monetized via FX spread and a 0.75–1% take rate.
Starting capital：US$8M in August 2024: $3M equity from Y Combinator, Byld Ventures, Norrsken Africa, Heirloom VC, Plug and Play and Olive Tree Capital; $5M venture debt from Timon Capital to pilot trade financing.
How it started
Maxwell Obi got the idea while head of business at Sendwave (acquired by Zepz for $500M): partners across Africa, Asia and Latin America kept asking for a service to handle global supplier and vendor payments that a P2P remittance company could not offer. He founded Waza in January 2023 with CTO Emmanuel Igbodudu, a senior engineer at Revolut who had also worked at Carbon, Moniepoint and FairMoney, and went through Y Combinator's Winter 2023 batch.
What happened
Waza processed $280,000 in its first month, then scaled to roughly $70 million in monthly payment volume (~$700M annualized) by May 2024, with volumes and revenue growing about 20% month over month. It emerged from stealth in August 2024 with $8M in equity and debt, serving hundreds of clients across six continents: multinationals with local liquidity needs, importers paying suppliers in India, China and the UK, and fintechs needing API infrastructure. In January 2025 it launched Lync, a multi-currency account platform (USD, EUR, GBP, NGN, stablecoins) with payments to over 100 countries and FDIC-insured funds.
How it ended up
Still running and expanding: from Ghana and Nigeria it extended into a multi-currency banking product for businesses incorporated in the US, UK and EU, and continues to target trade finance and treasury as core revenue lines.
Background
Waza is a Y Combinator-backed B2B payments and liquidity platform founded in January 2023 by Maxwell Obi and Emmanuel Igbodudu. Obi's idea came from his time at Sendwave: businesses across Africa and Asia constantly asked for a way to handle global supplier and vendor payments, something a peer-to-peer remittance company could not offer.
The company targets African businesses starved for dollar access — importers paying suppliers in India, China and the UK, multinationals operating locally with liquidity issues, and fintechs needing cross-border API rails. Waza processed $280,000 in its first month and reached roughly $70 million monthly payment volume (about $700M annualized) by May 2024, growing about 20% month over month on FX spread and a 0.75–1% take rate.
It emerged from stealth in August 2024 with $8M in funding ($3M equity from YC, Byld, Norrsken Africa, Heirloom, Plug and Play and Olive Tree; $5M venture debt from Timon Capital). In January 2025 it launched Lync, a multi-currency banking platform with USD, EUR, GBP, NGN and stablecoin accounts, payments to over 100 countries and FDIC-insured funds — a Mercury-style answer to the banking exclusion faced by emerging-market businesses.
What has to be true
- Trade deficits mean demand for dollars exceeds supply in African economies, so businesses pay a premium for access — exactly the liquidity Waza sells.
- Existing cross-border platforms built consumer products, leaving the large-enterprise and importer segment underserved.
- Controlling its own payment infrastructure and banking relationships let Waza undercut incumbents on price and beat them on settlement speed.
- The Lync expansion turned one-off payments into a banking relationship, raising switching costs and revenue per customer.
What can be applied
For B2B fintech in emerging markets, the scarce asset is not the app — it is liquidity and settlement speed; control the rails and the banking relationships and the take rate follows.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-02 Waza is live and scaling. After launching in stealth in January 2023 and emerging with $8M in August 2024, it reached ~$70M monthly payment volume by May 2024 and launched Lync in January 2025 — multi-currency accounts (USD, EUR, GBP, NGN, stablecoins) with payments to 100+ countries and FDIC insurance, targeting businesses serving emerging markets from the US, UK and EU. The company continues to build toward trade finance and treasury alongside payments.
Sources
- Waza comes out of stealth with $8M to power global trade for African businesses
- Nigeria's Waza launches multi-currency banking platform for emerging market businesses
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