Waza
YC W23Lagos, NG · Founded 2022 · 28 employees · 6 known investors
Waza provides a B2B global payments platform for emerging market businesses in Africa, LATAM, Asia, and the Middle East to send and receive cross-border payments. The platform simplifies international transactions and addresses challenges such as limited hard currency access and high transaction fees.
Also known as Waza Technologies Inc.
Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (W23)
Waza was founded in 2022 by Maxwell Obi and Emmanuel Igbodudu.
Investors · 6
Funding
SEC filings, press & company announcements$8M disclosed across 1 of 3 rounds · 2024–2025
Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Waza is a global payments and treasury management provider targeting businesses in emerging markets. Its platform lets customers send and hold USD, EUR and GBP, addressing limited access to hard currency in emerging markets through payment rails advertised as providing 24/7 foreign-currency access. Payments can be funded from a Waza balance, debit cards, e-wallets or bank transfers, and can be sent directly to recipients' USD, EUR or GBP bank accounts, with settlement stated at within 24 hours and transactions described as processed in real time.
The product includes a dashboard with reporting and reconciliation features for managing vendors, suppliers and cross-border invoices, customisable branded invoicing, multi-currency payments, the ability to pay in local currency, and an invoice financing feature in beta intended to unlock working capital against unpaid invoices. A receivables management capability is listed as coming soon. Onboarding is advertised as taking about 10 minutes. Waza states it uses fraud detection and prevention tooling with real-time monitoring of transactions and activity, and that it complies with global standards including ISO and PCI DSS for data storage and processing.
Business model
Waza serves business customers with cross-border payment and treasury services, positioning on competitive exchange rates and low fees, and additionally exposes APIs so that fintech partners can embed global payment capabilities for their own users.
The company cites exchange rates and fees on payments as the pricing mechanism for its services, describing competitive rates and low fees with no hidden charges.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography
Market position
Waza positions itself around hard-currency access, pricing transparency and settlement speed for emerging-market businesses whose access to USD, EUR and GBP is otherwise constrained.
Stated differentiators include 24/7 access to foreign currency via its own payment rails, multiple funding channels for payments, the ability to pay in local currency, settlement within 24 hours, and an invoice financing option in beta for working capital.
Technology
Waza operates proprietary payment rails supporting multi-currency (USD, EUR, GBP) transfers to bank accounts globally, a self-serve dashboard with reporting and reconciliation, invoicing tools, and APIs for third-party fintech integration. Security measures cited include fraud detection and prevention tooling with real-time transaction monitoring, alongside stated compliance with ISO and PCI DSS standards.
Go-to-market
The company markets directly to business segments via its website, offering self-serve onboarding stated to take around 10 minutes, and pursues an API-led channel with fintech partners.
Businesses making and receiving international payments, multinational organisations seeking to streamline transaction processes, and fintechs that need APIs to send and receive funds across locations.
Geography
Focused on emerging markets, with payouts to USD, EUR and GBP bank accounts globally.
Compiled by commissioned research from 1 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Competitors · 1
by search overlapCompanies competing with Waza for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
In the news
▸Research sources · 1
primary sources listed
- Wazawaza.co · web
1 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Waza do?
- Waza offers global payments and treasury management tools for emerging-market businesses making cross-border transactions.
- Who founded Waza?
- Waza was founded by Maxwell Obi, Emmanuel Igbodudu in 2022.
- Who are Waza's investors?
- Waza's investors include Dunbar Capital, Flucas Ventures, Kube VC, Olive Tree Capital, Velocity Digital, Y Combinator.
- How much funding has Waza raised?
- Waza has disclosed $8M raised across 1 of its 3 known rounds.
- Where is Waza headquartered?
- Waza is headquartered in Lagos, NG.