Apr 27, 2026 in Research
Authors: Doug Hsu, Investor at CMT Digital & Augie Ilag, Partner at CMT Digital
Cross-border payments remain one of the most persistent friction points in global commerce, particularly within, into, and out of emerging markets. This is especially evident in Asia, where rapid digitization is colliding with fragmented payment rails, complex regulatory environments, and legacy financial infrastructure.
Emerging markets represent the majority of the global population and are driving the next wave of internet and commerce growth. Yet much of the global payments stack remains optimized for developed market corridors. Businesses operating across Asia, LatAm, and Africa face slow settlement times, opaque fee structures, foreign exchange inefficiencies, and operational complexity tied to stitching together multiple providers across collection, treasury, and payouts.
We believe this is not simply a distribution problem, but an orchestration problem. The challenge is not access to payment rails, but the ability to coordinate across fragmented local systems, multiple currencies, and increasingly complex compliance requirements.
Many existing solutions attempt to address this by layering on top of legacy banking infrastructure. These systems often rely on correspondent banking and nostro-vostro accounts in the background, require pre-funding, and lack true interoperability with stablecoins. Even modern fintech models often wrap these systems rather than replace them, with many still relying on correspondent banking and nostro-vostro accounts in the background. Integrating stablecoins into these architectures introduces additional complexity, particularly around compliance and transaction monitoring.
Solving this requires rebuilding the stack from first principles.
A Full-Stack Approach to Global Fund Flows
Tazapay is building a full-stack global payments platform purpose-built for emerging market commerce. Their platform enables businesses to collect, hold, and pay across a wide range of currencies and payment methods, including real-time local rails such as UPI, PIX, and PromptPay.
What differentiates Tazapay is that it owns the flow of funds end-to-end. By directly holding licenses and operating regulated entities, the company is able to process payments on local real-time rails, control liquidity, and manage settlement without relying on intermediary banks. This allows Tazapay to move beyond the constraints of pre-funded nostro-vostro systems and build capital-efficient infrastructure from first principles outside of legacy banking rails.
The platform manages the full lifecycle of a transaction within a single system across collection, treasury management, and payouts. This reduces the operational burden of coordinating multiple providers and removes the need to rent third-party infrastructure. Tazapay also owns key components of the stack including liquidity management, licensing, and preferred vendor relationships, which enables tighter control over execution and reliability across corridors.
Compliance is embedded directly into this system. Because Tazapay sits in the flow of funds, it develops a deep understanding of customer payment behavior, counterparties, and transaction patterns. This creates a knowledge moat that is difficult to replicate. Rather than outsourcing compliance or pushing this burden downstream, Tazapay integrates monitoring, risk management, and regulatory workflows into the core product.
This design is particularly relevant for businesses operating across complex trade corridors. A merchant based in Asia selling globally may need to collect payments in multiple currencies, manage foreign exchange exposure, and pay suppliers across different markets while interfacing with local payment methods and regulatory frameworks. Tazapay abstracts this complexity into a unified workflow.
The Convergence of Local Rails and Stablecoins
Two structural shifts are reshaping global payments. First, the rise of real-time domestic payment systems such as UPI, PIX, and PromptPay is accelerating digitization within local markets. Second, stablecoins are emerging as a viable mechanism for cross-border value transfer, offering faster settlement and reduced reliance on traditional correspondent banking systems.
However, bridging local fiat rails with global settlement layers introduces significant complexity across compliance, liquidity management, and user experience. Many stablecoin startups highlight the advantages of stablecoins but build on top of legacy financial infrastructure or depend on third parties for custody, compliance, and settlement. Rather than rebuilding the system, they rent critical infrastructure and inherit the same inefficiencies they aim to replace.
We believe the platforms that succeed will be those that integrate these systems at the infrastructure layer while abstracting that complexity away from the end user.
Why Tazapay
Tazapay reflects a different approach. The company has done the work to rebuild payments infrastructure from the ground up rather than assembling a patchwork of external providers. By owning the stack across licenses, liquidity, compliance, and payment rails, Tazapay maintains direct control over how money moves through its system.
This ownership enables better capital efficiency by eliminating the need for pre-funded accounts, tighter execution across corridors, and a more scalable foundation for integrating stablecoins alongside fiat systems. It also allows Tazapay to operate in the complex and operationally intensive business of directly handling fund flows, which most startups avoid by pushing this burden onto partners.
Compliance know-how is a key differentiator. Tazapay’s position within the transaction flow gives it unique visibility into customer behavior and regulatory requirements across markets. This creates a durable advantage that is not easily replicated by companies that rely on external partners for core functions.
This is where experience becomes critical. Tazapay founder Rahul Shinghal brings over two decades of experience in global payments, including leadership roles at Stripe and PayPal where he led efforts across Asia. His firsthand exposure to the limitations of existing cross-border systems is reflected in Tazapay’s design choices and its willingness to build through complexity rather than around it.
Many companies in this category describe a future powered by stablecoins, but few have done the work required to build the underlying infrastructure themselves. Tazapay has, and we believe Rahul is uniquely positioned to scale this into a foundational company in global payments.
Disclaimer: Stablecoin-related services are provided exclusively by Tazapay Canada Corp, a FINTRAC-registered Money Services Business. Tazapay Pte. Ltd. (Singapore) does not provide Digital Payment Token services under the Payment Services Act 2019.
For informational purposes only, nothing herein should be construed as investment advice nor an offering to buy or sell any security or investment. Views expressed by any individuals are solely those of the individual author or speaker and do not necessarily reflect the views of CMT Digital. Views and opinions are as of the date provided and subject to change without notice.
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