CoalaPay

CoalaPay is a blockchain-based payment infrastructure for grant management, helping aid organizations move funds across borders using stablecoins. Its core service converts fiat currency into USDC, transfers it over the Stellar network, and pays out through local off-ramp providers into mobile money like M-PESA.

The main value proposition is programmable money: smart contracts automate payment conditions, sanctions screening, and duplicate prevention, while every transaction is recorded on-chain for an immutable audit trail. A partnership with Para provides social-login wallets, making the system accessible to non-crypto users.

The market pain point is that traditional banking takes weeks for cross-border aid payments, with high fees, currency risk, and little transparency. CoalaPay reduces settlement from 30 days to under 2 hours, cutting costs and giving donors real-time visibility.

In the past six months (March to September 2026), CoalaPay achieved ISO 27001 certification, strengthening its compliance posture. It also completed a pilot with Search for Common Ground (SFCG) in Kenya, paying 943 youth research participants with a 99.7% success rate and maximum settlement time under 2 hours. The pilot demonstrated the infrastructure works for high-volume, low-value payments, not just large transfers, and laid the groundwork for expanding to more country offices and payment types.