🐒 2025: Rafiki 2.0, FinTech, Future of Work, Ecosystem Players ✌️

I don’t usually write long posts. In fact, the last one I wrote was over a year ago, a reflection of our first year journey, alongside a bit of a dig at the VC/startup world's bizarre animal buzzwords. In reflecting on the past year, it's wild how quickly things have moved. Blink twice and you'll miss it kind of thing. Like London's summer, Glastonbury tickets, or any pitch deck with “agentic” in the title...

A lot happened too:

• UK’s “Summer of Heat” (jokes).
• Every startup rebranded as "agentic".
• Founders started saying “we’re not raising right now”, code for “we tried, but everyone’s too busy investing in LLM-powered vegan cat assistants.
• Banks finally ‘embrace’ crypto. Enter stablecoins.
• South Africa made rugby history (again).
• Tech CEOs published open letters on ethics. Usually just before a "strategic headcount optimisation".
• We navigated a pivot at Rafiki

So I'm slowing down for a second. A momentary pause to reflect, and actually write something myself, for myself, and for everyone who's supported our little journey so far.

🐒 Rafiki 2.0 🐒

Sam Tidswell-Norrish sums up our evolution well in his post:

It all started with one belief: There’s world-class talent across Africa→ And the world should have access to it. Rafiki evolved: From a freelance marketplace → to curated “hit squads” of senior talent → to a simple OS for running global teams.

We started out as a talent network connecting Africa’s top fractional specialists and micro-agencies with global agencies & startups. For us, the real bottleneck wasn’t finding the right people (our Talent Services arm has been really effective at finding top talent). It was managing the invoicing chaos and paying flexible, pop-up teams quickly and across borders.

That problem became our product and we shifted our focus into Rafiki OS.

Built on a combination of stablecoin and fiat rails, Rafiki sits between finance, ops and collaboration, not as another cross-border remittance tool, but as the workflow layer for modern, modular project teams.

Where wallets and payments facilitators focus on moving money, Rafiki solves the hard parts agencies and flexible teams feel daily: multi-party invoicing, splitting/merging payments, contractor/vendor compliance, and tidy reconciliation that mirrors how collaboration & subcontracting actually works.

Today, agencies, freelancers, and subcontractors are forced to juggle a maze of invoices, spreadsheets, payment links, and cross-border headaches just to get paid for one project. They collaborate like a network but get paid like it’s 2005. Unlike legacy platforms which are over-engineered for 1:1 engagements and have been built for the enterprise or centralised control, we're network-aligned and purpose-built for what we believe remains the Future Of Work.

Our first, rather amateurish dip into VEO3 a few months ago ☝️

Team day in Bath post-pivot 👇

Enough about us, for now...

💸 Fintech Flies Fast, Where's The Money At? 💸

Talk about change, talk about FinTech, 2025 has been the year stablecoins feel less like crypto speculation and more like usable infrastructure.

You’ve probably seen the Flutterwave × Polygon partnership to power cross-border payments across Africa, or Marc Baumann’s post about Coinbase reportedly acquiring BVNK for $2 billion, calling it “owning the rails.” Circle Ventures is backing Web3 funds in Africa via the CV Labs African Blockchain Fund , while Tether just invested in Kotani Pay to expand on-and off-ramps. These aren’t speculative moves. They're infrastructure plays that make global liquidity faster, cheaper, and compliant.

Nicolas Pinto wrote that “stablecoins aren’t just tokens, they’re infrastructure.” That’s exactly how we see it. At the base, networks like Polygon and Stellar handle throughput. In the middle, issuers such as Circle and Tether provide liquidity and reserves.

But real friction still happens at the top layer, the surface layer, where consumer & business trust is earned and outcomes create value through real-world workflows.

No-one cares how their money moves from A to B. They couldn't care less about "blockchain benefits". As long as money moves quickly, reliably, compliantly, and affordably, they're happy. In many ways, stablecoins inherit crypto’s speculative baggage. It's exactly why Rafiki abstracts away from crypto, and focused on solving, wait for it... "surface level problems".

If you're approaching stablecoins like features, not outcomes, you've lost already. Investors, I think, will be investing in 3 core areas:

• Embedded stablecoins: Payments start to feel invisible. The rails are stablecoins, but users just see faster settlement and lower fees solving legitimate workflow problems, or inside the tools they already use.
• Stablecoin infrastructure as a service: The back-end gets abstracted. Platforms now manage issuance, reserves, and compliance so anyone can plug in global payments with the simplicity of cloud hosting.
• Stablecoin-native models: Money becomes programmable. Cross-border revenue splits clear in real time, micro-lending happens automatically, and treasury flows start to look like live data, not accounting entries.

Investors like Tom Fairburn from Baobab Network understand this well 👇

The signals are everywhere. Moves like Revolut's recent $1:1 USDC announcement make us excited👇

And investors think services are sexy again? Maybe not, but there's definitely something interesting within niche, tech-enabled service models 👇

Moving on...

🤖 Workforce Shifts, What Actually Is The Future Of Work? 🤖

Asking for a friend...

We're still bullish on the fractionalisation of work. The pace of change this year has strengthened our hypothesis that fractional talent solutions, especially for agencies and startups, will continue to boom. As LLMs continue to automate certain roles into redundancy, the fractionalisation of traditional jobs and roles into granular tasks and outcomes continues. This is evident in the spike in skills-based hiring.

My bet? Deep domain expertise, AI literacy, personal network, and ecosystem reach will increasingly become the focus for hiring managers. Full-stack ability across a host of verticals (design, marketing, sales, engineering) has never been easier, but you'll need to be seriously savvy at strategic automation while bringing the right context to the table. Input = output.

It's why we embed top fractional talent across Africa into Rafiki OS, via our Talent Services arm. It's also why we've pushed so hard at SEO/AEO strategies across a host of Rafiki relevant keywords 👇 (Fractional Talent X)

On that note, if you're an agency founder, fractional specialist, or freelancer in South Africa, check out our Experts In Residence (EIR) program. All EIR agencies and talent are embedded into Rafiki OS, verified, vetted, and ready for subcontracting/collabs with agencies and startups across the US, EU, and UK.

"Just received the payment into my bank account, it literally took 1 min. Really delivered on the promise of "Instant" payments!" - Paul, South African Designer

You'll also be able to receive payments into your ZAR accounts within 45 seconds from international clients, for just 1.4%. Or keep the cash in your Rafiki USD wallets, and get paid from international clients for just 0.2%.

Seriously, get in touch.

🙏 To all the ecosystem players

The year's not over I know...but I feel incredibly privileged to have met some seriously cool people, businesses, and communities this year.

I'm going to forget someone (sorry), but here goes:

• Nicholas Boswell Steven Borrie - the founding Rafiki team. Let's keep grinding. 2026 is huge.
• All clients of Rafiki Talent Services - without you we wouldn't be where we are. Some highlights include Mack Brands GmbH for the innovative work you're doing in FMCG, Supplied on your seed raise, and Community Wolf on your big raise with Fuel Ventures 🚀
• All the incredible freelancers and fractional specialists we've collaborated with both internally and externally. Too many to tag but you know who you are!
• Our first investors and extended team Baobab Network - you guys are the best! Value Creators!
• Jobtech Alliance for investing, flying us to Kenya for the Jobtech Summit - honestly one of the year's highlights.
• Jonatan Allback of NjiaPay for all the advice, intros, and angel investment.
• Circle for onboarding us as one of your affiliate program startups.
• Asim Amin for having us on your podcast, Immigrant Founders POD
• Brenton Naicker from CV Labs for the advice + intros.
• Sydney Sam of Workspace Global for the great conversations we've had over coffees this year.
• The Africa Tech Summit for having us pitch at the London Stock Exchange earlier this year, where we met one of our angel investors.
• Paul Loots for the interesting chats around Natural Language Design, internal and agency work.
• Daniel Lun for ongoing solid work this year, one of our first adopters.
• Andrew Bloch of ClickTrain for the ongoing support + tickets to watch Chelsea.
• OPUS for the proactive community support + tickets to the Sifted Summit.
• Tom Kussmann of Horizons for the valuable advice and support - see you in Lisbon this month!
• Peace Itimi of Founders Connect for the great events and ongoing support.
• Jason Mill and the The Open Letter for the interest and support. If you're not subscribed to them, get on it!
• AfricArena for the events and support of what we're building.
• Matt Cooke for the monthly updates, support and intros.
• Matthew Mottola of Human Cloud for the beers in London and constant support and updates into the ecosystem. Check out The Human Cloud if you're in our space!
• The TechCabal team for the proactive support and features.
• The Tech in Africa and Disrupt Africa team for the fantastic features on Rafiki.
• Viraj Acharya for having us on his epic podcast.
• Hugo Pacheco of The Barefoot Economist for all the intros, possibly see you in Lisbon next week?
• Jonathan de Kock of Inkblot Design for navigating the client-side journey with us.
• Conor Walsh for the opportunities, events, and chats.
• Adrienne Henderson of Quona Capital for the various chats, intros, and events.

Until next year's annual update 🫡

We'll keep grinding away, with some exciting roll-outs over the next few months, new team members, an event in Cape Town in February 2026, a competition, some collabs, and a couple tricks up our sleeves...

If you’re part of an agency, collective, or freelance network that collaborates across borders, Rafiki's surface layer is where your next advantage will come from.

If you're an angel or early-stage VC, interested in what we're building, reach out.

If you're a competitor, potential partner, or keen to collab, also reach out. Let's share notes.

FAQs

What is Rafiki?

Rafiki is a financial operating system for flexible teams. It automates invoicing, KYC/KYB, and cross-border payments, helping freelancers, agencies, and startups collaborate and settle projects instantly through stablecoin and open-banking rails.

Rafiki also connects founders and agencies to vetted fractional and specialist talent; designers, developers, marketers, and strategists, through Rafiki Talent Services. Every engagement runs through the Rafiki OS for verified compliance, contracts, and instant settlements.

Why is Rafiki such a great platform for agencies?

Agencies can instantly pay subcontractors, split project revenue, and issue multi-currency invoices in one flow. Freelancers get paid faster, save on fees, and can form “pop-up” teams for larger projects without extra admin. It’s like a collaboration layer built into your payments stack.

How does Rafiki automate bills and master invoicing across teams?

Rafiki automates multi-party billing for agencies, independents, and subcontracting networks by turning fragmented invoices into one smart, consolidated workflow.

Teams can combine, split, or merge line items across collaborators, add markups or tax automatically, and generate a single master invoice that mirrors the actual structure of the project.

Once approved, Rafiki settles every linked payment in seconds, not days. Each contributor gets their exact share instantly, while businesses get full visibility and reconciliation without spreadsheets or back-and-forth emails.

What are typical transaction costs?

Rafiki’s blended transaction fees range from 0.2% to 1.4%, making it up to 80% cheaper than banks or generic freelancer platforms. There are no hidden FX mark-ups, and wallet-to-wallet transfers are free.

What makes Rafiki different to other platforms?

Unlike traditional payroll or freelance platforms, Rafiki combines multi-party invoicing, instant payments, and compliance into one platform. Rafiki automates invoices across flexible teams from time-logged and bills created. Invoices can be merged, split, and settled across multiple businesses or individuals within one central invoice, specifically built for subcontracting and collaboration. You control your own client and talent relationships, while Rafiki automates everything between, from KYC to payment settlement. Rafiki is purpose built around project teams, collaboration, and simplifying payments for flexible teams through intelligent invoice routing.

Footnotes and sources

1. Flutterwave × Polygon Partnership (LinkedIn)
2. Marc Baumann on Coinbase × BVNK Deal (LinkedIn)
3. Tether Invests in Kotani Pay (AppsAfrica)
4. Circle Ventures × CV VC African Fund (CV VC Press Release)
5. Chainalysis 2025 Sub-Saharan Africa Report
6. World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide Database (2025)
7. Nicolas Pinto “Cryptocurrency Layer Cake” Post (LinkedIn)