Money Transfer - Grandeliga

Empowering Cross-Border Money Transfer: How Grandeliga helped an African money transfer company transform its Canadian Operations

An African money transfer provider, overcame critical regulatory and operational hurdles in the Canadian market with our specialized fintech advisory solutions. After three years of challenges with banking relationships, payment processing, and multi-currency issuing, our partnership delivered the breakthrough they needed.
Client Background: Vision for Global Expansion
Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), this African money transfer company rapidly established itself as a cornerstone financial service across 17 African nations. Their platform processes over 2.5 million transactions monthly, serving primarily unbanked and underbanked populations with innovative mobile-first solutions.
In 2021, responding to the growing African diaspora in North America, they strategically expanded into Canada—home to over 1.2 million African expatriates and international students who regularly send remittances to support families across Africa.
Their ambitious Canadian corridor aimed to reduce remittance costs by 65% compared to traditional providers while offering near-instantaneous transfers—a revolutionary improvement from the industry standard of 3-5 business days.
The Challenge: Regulatory Barriers in Canadian Fintech
Banking Roadblocks
Despite their successful African operations, they encountered extreme resistance from Canadian financial institutions when attempting to establish settlement accounts—an essential component for their business model. Traditional banks classified them as "high-risk" due to their MSB classification.
After approaching 9 different financial institutions over 18 months, they remained without the critical banking infrastructure needed to scale their Canadian operations.
Payment Processing Complications
Payment Service Providers implemented increasingly stringent requirements for MSBs, demanding extensive documentation and compliance frameworks that exceeded their existing capabilities. This created significant friction in their onboarding, compliance, and transaction flow.
The resulting payment processing delays and high decline rates severely impacted customer satisfaction, with transaction completion rates falling to just 62%.
Multi-Currency Issuing Barriers
Their vision included providing multi-currency prepaid cards for African students living in Canada who frequently travel between continents. However, finding a BIN sponsor willing to support both MSB clients and multi-currency functionality proved nearly impossible.
Their product roadmap stalled as this critical service offering remained unavailable to their growing user base.
Our Solution: Specialized Fintech Strategy
Banking & Payment Solutions
Leveraging our established relationships with Canadian financial institutions specializing in fintech partnerships, we secured settlement account access within 45 days. Our payment optimization strategy increased transaction success rates from 62% to 91% within the first quarter of implementation.
Multi-Currency Issuing
Through a issuing-as-a-service platform, we were able to help identify a partner to launch their multi-currency card product without requiring direct BIN sponsorship, dramatically accelerating their timeline from an estimated 18+ months to just 12 weeks from contract to market.
Results: Transformed Canadian Operations
83%
Increase in Transaction Volume
Canadian corridor transactions grew from 8,000 to 14,650 monthly within the first six months after implementation.
91%
Payment Success Rate
Up from 62% pre-implementation, dramatically improving customer satisfaction and reducing support tickets.
12wks
Time to Market
For their multi-currency card product, compared to their initial 18+ month projection with traditional approaches.
$4.2M
Revenue Growth
Additional annual revenue generated through new payment corridors and card services in the Canadian market.
Ready to Expand to North America?
Contact Our Team
View More Case Studies

Home

Contact

Empowering Cross-Border Money Transfer: How Grandeliga helped an African money transfer company transform its Canadian Operations

Client Background: Vision for Global Expansion

In 2021, responding to the growing African diaspora in North America, they strategically expanded into Canada—home to over 1.2 million African expatriates and international students who regularly send remittances to support families across Africa.

Their ambitious Canadian corridor aimed to reduce remittance costs by 65% compared to traditional providers while offering near-instantaneous transfers—a revolutionary improvement from the industry standard of 3-5 business days.

The Challenge: Regulatory Barriers in Canadian Fintech

Banking Roadblocks

Despite their successful African operations, they encountered extreme resistance from Canadian financial institutions when attempting to establish settlement accounts—an essential component for their business model. Traditional banks classified them as "high-risk" due to their MSB classification.

After approaching 9 different financial institutions over 18 months, they remained without the critical banking infrastructure needed to scale their Canadian operations.

Payment Processing Complications

Payment Service Providers implemented increasingly stringent requirements for MSBs, demanding extensive documentation and compliance frameworks that exceeded their existing capabilities. This created significant friction in their onboarding, compliance, and transaction flow.

The resulting payment processing delays and high decline rates severely impacted customer satisfaction, with transaction completion rates falling to just 62%.

Multi-Currency Issuing Barriers

Their vision included providing multi-currency prepaid cards for African students living in Canada who frequently travel between continents. However, finding a BIN sponsor willing to support both MSB clients and multi-currency functionality proved nearly impossible.

Their product roadmap stalled as this critical service offering remained unavailable to their growing user base.

Our Solution: Specialized Fintech Strategy

Banking & Payment Solutions

Leveraging our established relationships with Canadian financial institutions specializing in fintech partnerships, we secured settlement account access within 45 days. Our payment optimization strategy increased transaction success rates from 62% to 91% within the first quarter of implementation.

Multi-Currency Issuing

Through a issuing-as-a-service platform, we were able to help identify a partner to launch their multi-currency card product without requiring direct BIN sponsorship, dramatically accelerating their timeline from an estimated 18+ months to just 12 weeks from contract to market.

Results: Transformed Canadian Operations

83%

91%

12wks

$4.2M

Ready to Expand to North America?

Grandeliga, LLC