LemFi, the financial platform serving people who live and work across borders, has joined forces with BVNK, an enterprise-grade stablecoin payments infrastructure firm, to overhaul the settlement layer that underpins the diaspora economy.
Under the agreement, LemFi will shift its cross-border settlement onto BVNK’s regulated stablecoin infrastructure, allowing value to move between markets almost instantly and at a much lower cost. The change happens entirely behind the scenes, meaning the customer experience within the LemFi app remains untouched. Funds are routed over stablecoin rails and then disbursed in local currency at the receiving end, with users never holding crypto or leaving their own currency.
Founded in 2021, LemFi began as a remittance specialist and has grown into a full-stack financial platform covering payments, credit, savings, connectivity and investing. More than two million customers across the UK, Europe, North America and Australia use it to send money to over 30 markets in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Headquartered in London with over 350 staff across four continents, the company has raised more than $85m from backers including Highland Europe, Left Lane Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, Palm Drive Capital and Y Combinator.
BVNK, for its part, runs a compliance-first platform holding more than 25 licences and regulatory approvals across the UK, Europe and the US, with reach in over 130 countries, and already powers stablecoin payments for major global enterprises.
The partnership follows a year of momentum for LemFi, including choosing London as its global headquarters alongside a £100m UK investment commitment and an expanding regulatory footprint spanning the UK, Europe, North America, Australia and key African and Asian corridors. Stablecoin settlement will be introduced gradually, corridor by corridor, only where local central bank and regulatory frameworks permit.
LemFi co-founder and CEO Ridwan Olalere said, “The money that crosses borders still moves on rails built decades ago— slow, expensive, and quietly taxing the people who can least afford it. We’re rebuilding those rails. Stablecoins let us settle near instantly and take out cost; BVNK gives us the infrastructure to do it safely and at scale. It’s the start of something bigger that the financial system and the diaspora economy should have had all along.”
BVNK co-founder and chief business officer Chris Harmse said, “Stablecoins are becoming the base layer for how the world moves money, and remittances are one of the clearest places that this shift changes lives. LemFi has built deep trust with the communities it serves across Africa, Asia and beyond. Powering their settlement with our infrastructure means that faster, cheaper transfers reach real families – exactly the kind of impact we built BVNK to deliver.”
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