For giant organisations working in Africa, accessing international change (FX) liquidity once they want it’s usually a painful expertise. Banks not often present the total quantity required in a single go, and once they do, the method is gradual, opaque, and fragmented.
That problem—transferring cash effectively throughout borders and accessing FX at aggressive charges—is what Verto, a London-headquartered fintech, got down to resolve.
Based in 2019 by Ola Oyetayo and Anthony Oduwole, Verto has constructed a B2B cross-border funds and FX platform that helps companies ship, obtain, and change cash throughout over 190 international locations.
The corporate’s origin was modest: a forex change market to assist companies swap illiquid African currencies just like the naira or franc for extra globally traded ones. However it shortly developed.
“Typically these companies can’t get all of the FX they want without delay from the financial institution,” Oduwole, Verto’s CTO, instructed TechCabal. “We provide aggressive charges as a result of we will do wholesale pricing—2x or 3x higher than banks in some instances.”
By including fee infrastructure to its FX engine, Verto positioned itself as a one-stop platform for companies with worldwide operations. Its shoppers vary from client web corporations like MTN and Yoco to B2C remittance corporations like Flutterwave and D.native, who depend on Verto’s infrastructure and liquidity to serve their very own finish customers.
B2B, not B2C—for a motive
When Verto launched, Africa’s B2C remittance area was already crowded with large gamers: Western Union, MoneyGram, and a rising cohort of fintechs. Oduwole mentioned that getting into the B2C area would’ve required a advertising and marketing warfare chest and deep operational experience.
As an alternative, Verto made a guess on enterprise funds—what the founders noticed as an underserved and largely “unsexy” a part of the market. The logic was easy: whereas remittances dominate the headlines, B2B cross-border transactions dwarf B2C in quantity. As of 2024, the worldwide B2B cross-border funds market was price $31.6 trillion, in comparison with simply $1.9 trillion for B2C.
“B2B was the larger pie,” Oduwole mentioned. “For those who get even 1% of that, you’re good.”
Constructing infrastructure from scratch
Beneath the shiny interface, Verto has constructed a dense backend stack: compliance engine, FX pricing engine, funds infrastructure, and reconciliation instruments. A lot of it was created from scratch.
“There was merely no plug-and-play,” Oduwole mentioned. “We needed to construct our personal stack—from fee and compliance to reconciliation.”
The infrastructure provides Verto a robust edge. It not solely powers its personal merchandise, it additionally permits different companies to construct on high of it. Some remittance corporations, for instance, use Verto’s rails to maneuver cash behind the scenes.
To beat friction with legacy African banks—lots of which battle to combine with world banking techniques—Verto secured a Fee Companies Supplier (PSP) license from the UK’s Monetary Conduct Authority. This enables the startup to attach immediately with tier-1 world banks and handle treasury companies extra effectively.
Compliance as product
For a startup that strikes massive sums of cash throughout continents, compliance isn’t just a checkbox—it’s a product in itself.
“For those who mistakenly ship $1,000, nobody will panic,” Oduwole mentioned. “However in the event you transfer $10 million non-compliantly, your organization might be shut down.”
Verto has constructed a wise compliance engine that tracks fee patterns and flags anomalies. If a enterprise normally does quarterly transactions price $1 million and all of a sudden spikes to $2 million, the system checks in.
“Not as a result of we don’t need you to succeed,” Oduwole mentioned. “We simply have to comprehend it’s compliant.”
Verto additionally conducts due diligence on beneficiary accounts and faucets into worldwide fraud databases. The system is strengthened with AI to flag dangers and scale back false positives.
Making a living
Verto earns from FX transactions, switch charges, and a 1% fee on its value discovery market. The corporate claims profitability and processes over $15 billion in FX volumes yearly.
Its FX administration product is the most important income driver, adopted by treasury companies. However Oduwole believes its card product, which launched in 2024, could quickly overtake them.
Verto operates in a crowded area. It competes with gamers like Kora, Fincra, and older monetary establishments like banks. However it sees banks—not startups—as the most important menace.
“Banks don’t simply do FX. They provide credit score, handle payroll, and do quite a lot of the heavy lifting for companies,” Oduwole mentioned. Nonetheless, Verto believes banks are too gradual and inflexible to match the pliability digital platforms provide.
New merchandise and bets
Verto’s company playing cards permit companies to situation expense administration playing cards for worldwide use. The corporate prolonged the product to freelancers and smaller companies to unlock new demand.
Oduwole mentioned the distinction lies within the vertical integration: “We leverage Verto FX infrastructure, Verto collections, and pair it with our companion’s card know-how. That offers us deeper companies than different suppliers.”
It additionally rolled out a no-code bill device—companies can now ship a fee hyperlink to worldwide shoppers to receives a commission quicker.
Behind these launches is a broader product technique: bundling treasury, FX, and fee instruments beneath one roof to maintain B2B customers in its ecosystem.
Verto needs to change into the default monetary backend for African companies with worldwide operations. To get there, it’s betting on infrastructure, compliance, and a B2B-first lens.
“For those who actually need to construct a worldwide enterprise, it’s important to make compliance your core,” mentioned Oduwole. “You may not scale quick, however you’ll construct an actual enterprise—and sleep higher at night time.”
