A quietly scaling African fintech startup is beginning to stand out in one of the continent’s most competitive and structurally important sectors: cross-border payments.

HitchPay, a financial technology platform built for African businesses and diaspora communities, has processed more than $2 million in transactions in the last four months while serving over 20,000 active customers, according to company data. The platform is currently growing at 22% month-over-month, signaling strong early traction in a market long plagued by fragmented infrastructure and high transaction costs.

Launched to address the persistent barriers African entrepreneurs face when accepting international payments, HitchPay sits at the intersection of two powerful trends: Africa’s expanding digital commerce economy and the growing financial needs of its global diaspora.

“For African founders and freelancers, getting paid globally is still far harder than it should be,” said Paul Obalonye, co-founder of HitchPay. “We built HitchPay to remove the friction , so geography no longer determines who can participate in the global economy.”

Solving a Structural Pain Point

For many African businesses, selling products or services internationally often means navigating payment systems that either exclude their markets entirely or impose fees that erode margins. At the same time, Africans living abroad frequently encounter inefficiencies when sending money home or managing financial obligations across multiple countries.

HitchPay’s approach is to consolidate these needs into a single platform. Rather than offering point solutions, the company provides tools for international payment acceptance, remittances, and digital financial services under one umbrella reducing the need for users to rely on multiple providers with separate onboarding, compliance, and fee structures.

This simplification appears to be resonating. In an industry where customer acquisition is expensive and loyalty is difficult to sustain, HitchPay’s consistent month-over-month growth suggests the platform is not only attracting users, but retaining them.

“What we’re seeing isn’t just usage, it’s repeat behavior,” Obalonye said. “That’s usually the clearest signal that you’re solving a real problem, not just offering another fintech feature.”

Early Traction, Bigger Ambitions

HitchPay’s leadership has set an ambitious long-term vision, aiming to rank among the top 1% of financial services providers operating in Africa, with an eventual path toward a public listing. Those goals place the company in direct competition with incumbent banks and heavily funded international fintech players.

The opportunity, however, is substantial. According to the World Bank, remittances to sub-Saharan Africa reached approximately $54 billion in 2022, and both intra-African trade and cross-border e-commerce continue to expand despite infrastructure gaps. As digital businesses proliferate across the continent, demand for reliable, compliant, and affordable payment rails is increasing.

HitchPay’s early metrics suggest it has achieved product-market fit with a clearly defined segment: African entrepreneurs with global customers and diaspora users managing cross-border financial lives.

“The long-term play is infrastructure,” Obalonye added. “If African businesses are going to compete globally, payments have to be invisible, fast, and trusted. That’s the layer we’re building.”

A Market With Structural Tailwinds

While it remains early in HitchPay’s journey, the company’s performance highlights a broader shift in how African businesses and consumers are engaging with global finance. Platforms that can simplify cross-border money movement, without sacrificing compliance or reliability ,stand to benefit from enduring structural tailwinds.

Whether HitchPay can translate early momentum into the scale required to meet its longer-term ambitions will depend on execution, regulation, and competitive dynamics. For now, its growth offers a compelling case study of how targeted fintech solutions can unlock participation in the global economy for historically underserved markets.