Some 10,000 business customers now use the platform to transfer close to $6 billion, a 20-fold growth in less than a year. Kredete recently joined the Blockchain Digital Assets cohort of Mastercard’s Start Path startup engagement program, to access expertise and connections across the company’s global ecosystem to further scale the business.
The growth of digital transfer services like Kredete is making it easier and cheaper to send an estimated $700 billion in remittances annually to low and middle-income countries. That means more money gets where senders want it faster, with reduced costs and improved exchange rates. And remittances are only one slice of the opportunity: Emerging markets represent roughly 12% of the $208 trillion global cross-border payments market, yet have historically received the least infrastructure investment.
Charging a flat $1 per transaction and earning a take rate on the volume moving across its rails, Kredete built its customer base by directly targeting the African diaspora living in the U.S. Initially, he linked up with Christian and Muslim religious organizations in Houston and New York. Next, he targeted cities such as Seattle and Dallas, which have thriving East and West African communities.
Adedewe also wanted his platform to do more than simply transfer money to people back home. The idea dates back to his early days in the U.S., and the 17 times he was turned down for a credit card because of his lack of a local credit history. Kredete helps users who are often invisible to mainstream institutions build up credit profiles in their adopted country.
“How do you get credit history if you don’t have access to credit?” he asks. “The idea was, you’re sending money back home to your family, you’re building their lives, but you should also build your life here in the U.S. simultaneously.”
Now Kredete users can earn interest on the money they save through the app, while each payment helps build a credit profile so they can apply for loans and mortgages. Embedding AI agents also has helped grow Kredete into a super app. With a simple text message, the app's agent, Prael, can execute financial decisions on a user's behalf — paying rent, scheduling a transfer when exchange rates are favorable, sending an on-chain payment, or purchasing plane tickets on a linked card when fares are at their cheapest — all within guardrails the user sets.
Envisioning substantial growth in automated payments going forward, Adedewe says building Kredete as a digital, emerging-market-first platform means it is finely tuned to the growing needs of its users — with an ambition to become the financial operating system for the next billion people and millions of businesses across emerging markets.
“I entered fintech after experiencing firsthand how difficult it can be to access financial services across borders, even when you are financially responsible,” he says. “We believe the future of financial technology is global, intelligent and built on infrastructure that makes moving money and accessing financial tools simple for anyone, anywhere. There’s a vast amount of demand and need in this market — and that’s why we’re tapping into it as our next frontier.”
