B2B cross-border payments for businesses Conduit has announced its expansion in the region of Latin America, following a USD 5 million seed extension round. At the moment, the cross-border payments for businesses and firms in emerging markets remain significantly untapped, despite small to large companies using banks, financial institutions, and legacy fintechs to transact trillions of dollars in transaction volume annually.

Conduit, a B2B cross-border payments platform, decided to pivot from crypto to traditional banking, aiming to expand in Africa where businesses face many similar challenges to the startup’s first markets in the region of Latin America. This initiative follows a USD 6 million seed extension from Helios Digital Ventures, the venture capital arm of Helios Investment Partners. The company also mentioned that businesses on its platform will have the possibility to pay USD directly to bank accounts via ACH or SWIFT, even without a US entity.

The process began offering payments and transactions to businesses in Latin America last August. More information on the announcement Being initially launched as an API in order to connect fintechs, neobanks, and legacy financial institutions with crypto-backed earning tools, Conduit aims to bridge traditional finance with decentralisWed finance (DeFi). The company was backed then by USD 17 million in seed funding from investors Portage Ventures, Diagram Ventures, and Gradient Ventures, while also developing analytics tools for institutional investors in DeFi.

In August 2023, Conduit launched its B2B cross-border payments platform in Latin America, while also recognising the significant challenges that businesses face when trying to connect to the global financial system, in countries such as Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico. In addition, many of these companies also struggle with access to USD, reliable SWIFT connections, as well as other essential payment rails. The situation is similar in the region of Africa, where firms in countries such as Kenya and Nigeria also encounter these difficulties.

While most businesses still need to convert stablecoins into local currencies to manage rent, salaries, and other operational costs, Conduit will continue to help bridge this gap by facilitating conversions, while also allowing businesses to off-ramp stablecoins into local currencies where needed. In addition, in order to provide a more efficient money transfer process, Conduit partners with the same local banks in each country it operates and leverages its tech to ensure faster payouts. In this way, customers will have the possibility to send money in their local currency using familiar methods.

According to the company’s officials, Conduit’s roadmap will also allow businesses and companies in other regions, including Asia, to make faster cross-border B2B payments. In addition, it will also add plans to break even and achieve profitability before the end of the year. .