Company Overview
About Waza
Waza is a Lagos-based B2B cross-border payments platform enabling businesses in Africa and other emerging markets to make and receive international payments — solving the specific challenge of settling transactions across currencies and financial systems where correspondent banking relationships are limited, FX rates are poor, and traditional wire transfers are slow and expensive. Founded in 2022 by Emmanuel Igbodudu and Maxwell Obi and a Y Combinator W23 graduate, Waza raised $8 million, processes $700 million in annualized payment volume, reached profitability in Q4 2023 while maintaining 20% monthly growth, and launched Lync as a multi-currency account platform.
Business Model & Competitive Advantage
Waza's payments infrastructure handles the liquidity and FX operations that make cross-border B2B payments work in emerging markets: maintaining currency positions, managing FX conversion at competitive rates through treasury operations, and providing API access so that other fintechs and platforms can integrate Waza's payment rails for their own international payment use cases. The $700 million annualized volume within approximately 2 years of founding demonstrates strong product-market fit in an underserved market.
Competitive Landscape 2025–2026
In 2025, Waza competes in the African and emerging market cross-border payments space with Nium (global payments infrastructure), Flutterwave (African payments leader), Paystack (acquired by Stripe), and Airwallex (global multi-currency business accounts) for B2B cross-border payment flows. The African cross-border payments market is fragmented and expensive — correspondent banking charges, multiple currency conversions, and settlement delays add significant cost and friction to intra-African and Africa-international trade. Waza's profitability at scale reflects disciplined unit economics: treasury management of currency positions enables FX spread revenue that makes the payments business profitable without requiring VC subsidy of pricing. The 2025 strategy focuses on scaling payment volume through enterprise customer acquisition, expanding Lync's multi-currency account features for businesses managing international operations, and growing the markets covered across Africa and emerging market corridors.
Recent Activity
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Emerging Innovator
Waza is an emerging player bringing innovative solutions to the Finance market.
Frequently Asked Questions
Estimated Visibility Trend (Beta)
Simulated 8-week rolling score
Based on estimated brand signals. Historical tracking coming soon.
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