In an industry where aggressive fundraising often masks unprofitability, Nigerian fintech startup Fincra is charting a different course. With more than $10 billion in processed transactions since 2023, operations in multiple countries, and only $120,000 in external funding to date, the bootstrapped company is quietly becoming one of Africa’s most influential cross-border payment infrastructure providers.

Fincra’s success has largely unfolded behind the scenes. While consumer-facing names like LemFi, NALA, and Grey dominate headlines, many depend on backend infrastructure providers to move money across borders. Fincra, which enables licensed remittance companies and platforms to accept, process, and disburse funds seamlessly, is one such enabler. Its clients include Lemfi, OneLiquidity, and Cleva.

This week, Fincra announced it had secured a Third Party Payment Provider (TPPP) licence from the South African Reserve Bank, marking a significant expansion into Africa’s most developed and competitive financial services market. The licence permits the company to offer a suite of regulated payment services — from debit and credit card payments to real-time clearing and electronic funds transfers — to local businesses and platforms.

South African Entry Signals Broader Continental Strategy

The South African licence forms part of Fincra’s long-term strategy to build a continent-wide payment network. In a crowded field populated by local competitors such as Yoco, Ozow, and Peach Payments, Fincra plans to differentiate through its cross-border capabilities and API-first infrastructure.

“This is a major step in our mission to build the rails for an integrated Africa,” said Wole Ayodele, Fincra’s founder and CEO. “We are building for the businesses that move Africa forward — logistics firms, e-commerce platforms, remittance providers — and they need reliable, compliant, and fast payment services that work across borders.”

Fincra’s payment APIs allow businesses to issue wallets, collect payments in local currency, and make instant payouts across borders. These services are already in use by clients in sectors ranging from logistics to betting. In Nigeria, for instance, the company powers most of the digital payments for the country’s booming online betting industry.

The company’s entry into South Africa comes just weeks after another regulatory milestone: securing a Payment System Provider license from the Bank of Tanzania. That approval allows Fincra to offer regulated local and cross-border services in East Africa’s second-largest economy, further strengthening its presence across the continent.

A Deliberate, Profitable Path

Fincra’s business model stands in contrast to the VC-fueled growth many African fintechs have pursued. Since completing the Techstars accelerator program in 2020, Fincra has remained largely bootstrapped.

“I don’t believe in funding as a growth strategy; I believe in adding value,” Ayodele said. “If you add value, people will give you money. We’re focused on building infrastructure that lasts.”

That infrastructure now stretches across Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, the UK, Europe, and North America. The company says expansion into Egypt, Ethiopia, and Francophone West Africa is imminent.

Despite operating under the radar, Fincra has become profitable. While it declined to disclose revenue or profit margins, executives attribute the company’s financial health to its B2B model, regulatory discipline, and deliberate avoidance of high-cost, consumer-facing offerings.

Instead, Fincra plans to introduce multi-currency accounts targeted at African small businesses. “We want to power African businesses, not compete with them,” Ayodele said. “Serving developers, fintechs, and SMEs with the rails they need — that’s how we achieve scale.”

A Sobering View on Virtual Cards and Fraud

Fincra’s strategy also includes steering clear of certain fintech trends. It has deprioritized issuing virtual dollar cards — a product that many Nigerian startups rushed to offer in recent years by partnering with foreign banks.

Ayodele is critical of that workaround. “There’s a fraud threshold,” he said. “As the number of non-U.S. residents issued cards rises, the risks increase. You can’t scale that way sustainably.”

Instead, he argues, companies should pursue country-specific partnerships and regulatory approvals, even if it takes longer. “People don’t like to do hard things,” he said. “But it’s the hard things that will last.”

Fraud remains a major concern for the sector, particularly in Nigeria’s fast-moving digital financial landscape. Fincra has had to invest in security and fraud mitigation as it scales.

“If you don’t put in the right controls, you get found out. You get hacked,” Ayodele said. “We’ve learned this the hard way, like everyone else.”

The Bigger Picture: Infrastructure, Not Isolation

Unlike many startups that view competitors as adversaries, Fincra sees its peers as potential customers. “The companies you think are our rivals often end up integrating with our infrastructure,” Ayodele said.

He argues that Africa’s fragmented financial systems require multiple players building complementary solutions. “No single company can solve cross-border payments for the entire continent,” he said. “We need more companies doing what we’re doing.”

With a regulatory footprint expanding from East to Southern Africa, ambitions to enter Francophone and North African markets, and a profitable, infrastructure-first approach, Fincra is increasingly being viewed as a foundational layer in Africa’s emerging digital economy.

It may not be a household name. But for the businesses powering cross-border trade on the continent, Fincra is already a critical part of the system — and growing more indispensable by the day.