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By Sendana
Overview
Sendana is a borderless banking platform built entirely on Stellar, using USDC rails to serve freelancers, remote workers, and content creators across the Global South, starting first with the Caribbean. This funding will broaden offramp coverage, launch business banking, and deepen our use of the Stellar ecosystem so users can do more with their funds.
Bank Transfer Offramps
We will integrate Visa Direct's push-to-card & push-to-account to enable direct bank withdrawals, complementing our live Sendana card and MoneyGram offramps. This removes the biggest friction point for users who need funds in their local accounts quickly and affordably.
Cross-Chain Transfers (CCTP)
Integrating Circle's CCTP will let users move funds to non-Stellar wallets, adding flexibility and interoperability while keeping Stellar as the core settlement layer.
Enhanced Account Security (Privy)
Through our integration with Privy we will add two-factor authentication and passkey logins, giving users stronger protection on their accounts while keeping sign-in familiar and frictionless.
Invoicing and Payment Links
Users will create and send invoices and payment links directly from the platform, making it easier to present themselves professionally and also remove some of the friction around getting paid. This turns the platform into a complete income management tool for independent workers.
Referral Programme
A built-in referral system will reward users for inviting others, lowering acquisition costs and driving organic growth across our target corridors.
Euro and GBP Accounts (Bridge)
We currently support only USD virtual accounts. Adding EUR and GBP account support extends our multi-currency reach for users billing clients in more markets.
Yield-Bearing Accounts (Defindex)
Integrating Defindex will let users earn yield on idle balances, adding value to held funds and deepening Stellar DeFi adoption.
Business Banking Platform
This platform will allow us to attract both SMB and Enterprise Customers and allow us to be seen as a serious onchain alternative to Brex, Mercury, Ramp etc.
Built on our personal banking foundation, this adds:
KYB onboarding
Multi-card issuance
The ability to assign cards to team members and set limits on a per-card basis
Multi-user team logins
Spend tracking and receipt uploads
The ability to generate account statements
$100.0K
Live Product and Early Usage
Sendana is live. We launched 9 weeks ago and have over 3,000 registered users and $350,000 USD in total transaction volume. This is real usage from our target audience of freelancers, remote workers, and content creators. All of this happened with almost no ad spend.
Analytics Dashboard
Proof of Traction: https://onchainanalytics.usesendana.com
(Note that the above dashboard does not include our card transaction volume which currently sits at almost $20,000. A screenshot of card transaction volume is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C_bETitvv58yTaDibxZYPX1SzXJc_8Wg/view?usp=sharing)
Stellar Ecosystem and Investor Backing
Sendana is backed by the Stellar Development Foundation and DraperU Ventures. We were accepted into the Stellar Founder Residency Programme, the Stellar Embark Accelerator and most recently completed a structured six-week go-to-market programme run by Stellar and Myosin.
Infrastructure Partnerships
We have signed and integrated with a stack of regulated partners that validates our operational model, including Bridge for virtual USD accounts, Rain for card issuance, MoneyGram and Paysend for payouts, and Persona for KYC. These agreements show partners are willing to underwrite Sendana's compliance and payments infrastructure.
Deliverable # 1 - Integration of Visa Direct (Push-To-Card & Push-To-Account Offramps)
Budget: $10,500
Hours: 140 (Includes interface design, front-end coding and backend development work)
How This Benefits Stellar/Context: Paysend is not on Stellar's list of integration partners but there are NO Stellar integration partners or anchors that offers push-to-card/push-to-account via Visa Direct for the Caribbean and this is the only available, low-cost offramp rail (SWIFT is expensive) covering almost every country in that region. This integration benefits Stellar directly because every single wallet created on our platform is a Stellar wallet and if people have familiar off-ramping methods that will allow them to move money to their local bank accounts when they need to, they will move more money through Sendana. This automatically translates to increased volume on Stellar. There is USDC movement on Stellar when they add their funds to a Sendana wallet and USDC movement on Stellar again during on the offramp via Paysend. This has been described in detail in our technical specifications.
Description: Allow users to easily, cheaply and quickly offramp funds back to their local accounts by pushing funds directly to the cards or account numbers that are linked to their existing bank accounts. This is the ONLY non-SWIFT option for several countries in the Caribbean where bank transfer offramps are extremely limited.
Timeline: 4 weeks
Verifiable Completion Criteria: Push-to-account withdrawals live in production. Evidence: screen recording of an end-to-end withdrawal, Stellar Explorer links for the on-chain USDC movement, and the matching Paysend payout reference. Reviewers can also verify by completing a push-to-account withdrawal from a reviewer account.
Deliverable # 2 Cross-Chain Transfers (Circle CCTP)
Budget: $4,875
Hours: 65 (Includes interface design, front-end coding and backend development work)
Description: Integrating Circle's CCTP to allow users move funds to non-Stellar wallets, adding flexibility and interoperability while keeping Stellar as the core settlement layer. There is currently no functionality in place to transfer funds to external wallets, so this user flow will be built from scratch.
Timeline: 3 weeks
Verifiable Completion Criteria: Cross-chain transfers live. Evidence: demo video of a USDC transfer from a Sendana Stellar wallet to an external EVM wallet, with the Stellar Explorer link and the destination-chain explorer link for the same transfer. Reviewers can repeat it using a wallet address they control.
Delivery # 3 - Enhanced Account Security (Privy)
Budget: $7,200
Hours: 96 (Includes interface design, front-end coding and backend development work)
Description: Through a deeper integration with Privy we will add two-factor authentication and passkey logins, giving users stronger protection on their accounts while keeping sign-in familiar and frictionless.
Timeline: 3 weeks
Verifiable Completion Criteria: 2FA and passkey login live for all users. Evidence: screen recording of enrollment, login and recovery for each method, plus a link to the live security settings page. Reviewers can verify by registering a passkey and enabling 2FA on their own reviewer account.
Delivery # 4 - Invoicing and Payment Links
Budget: $14,625
Hours: 195 (Includes interface design, front-end coding and backend development work)
Users will create and send invoices and payment links directly from the platform, making it easier to present themselves professionally and also remove some of the friction around getting paid.
Users will be able to create itemized invoices, personlized with their own logos. As for the payment links, in addition to displaying virtual bank account details, the payment links will include Plaid integration for direct-from-bank transfers, facilitate Sendana-to-Sendana transfers, and display the relevant Stellar wallet address.
Timeline: 8 weeks
Verifiable Completion Criteria: Demo video showing both an invoice being generated and the associated payment link path, plus Stellar Explorer links showing the related payment being settled on-chain through the payment link. Reviewers can verify by issuing an invoice from a reviewer account and paying it to a Stellar address they control.
Deliverable # 5 - Referral Programme
Budget: $10,800
Hours: 144 (Includes interface design, front-end coding and backend development work)
Context Note/How This Will Benefit Stellar: This funding will NOT be used to cover marketing or user acquisition costs. This is strictly for technical development work. Since ALL our wallets are Stellar wallets, every user onboarded increases the Stellar wallet count and every transaction increases volume on the Stellar network. This deliverable builds a robust engine for managing the technical and administrative aspects of this referral programme.
A built-in referral system will reward users for inviting others, lowering acquisition costs and driving organic growth across our target corridors. This will allow users to create referral codes and links and track earnings. Referral commission will be triggered by actions such as the referred person making his/her first deposit of $100 or more.
Timeline: 5 weeks
Verifiable Completion Criteria: Referral engine live. Demo video showing code and link generation and referral attribution. Reviewers can verify by generating a code on a reviewer account and following a tracked signup through to reward.
Deliverable # 6 - Euro and GBP Accounts (Bridge)
Budget: $9,300
Hours: 124 (Includes interface design, front-end coding and backend development work)
We currently support only USD virtual accounts. Adding EUR and GBP account support extends our multi-currency reach for users billing clients in more markets. Instead of offering only USD accounts, users will now be able to create accounts in these additional currencies and view the balances and transactions associated with each.
Timeline: 4 weeks
Verifiable Completion Criteria: EUR and GBP accounts live. Demo video showing multi-currency balances and transaction views. Reviewers can verify by provisioning both on a reviewer account.
Deliverable # 7 - Yield-Bearing Accounts (Defindex)
Budget: $12,600
Hours: 168 (Includes interface design, front-end coding and backend development work)
Integrating Defindex will let users earn yield on idle balances, adding value to held funds and deepening Stellar DeFi adoption.
Timeline: 5 weeks
Verifiable Completion Criteria: Yield accounts live. Demo video of a deposit into the DeFindex vault and accrued yield displayed in-app, plus Stellar Explorer links for the vault contract and for real deposit and withdrawal transactions. Reviewers can verify all contract calls on-chain.
Delivery # 8 - Business Banking Platform
Budget: $29,400
Hours: 392 (Includes interface design, front-end coding and backend development work)
This platform will allow us to attract both SMB and Enterprise Customers and allow us to be seen as a serious onchain alternative to Brex, Mercury, Ramp etc.
Built on our personal banking foundation and also entirely on Stellar, this adds:
KYB onboarding
Multi-card issuance
The ability to assign cards to team members and set limits on a per-card basis assignment
Multi-user team logins
Spend tracking and receipt uploads
The ability to generate account statements
Timeline: 11 weeks
Verifiable Completion Criteria: Business platform live at a public URL. Demo video covering KYB onboarding, team invites and roles, multi-card issuance with per-card limits, spend tracking and statement generation. Reviewers can verify with a reviewer business account onboarded end to end.
We have two team members presently. We were participants in last year's Stellar/DraperU Founder Residency Programme (fka Hacker House) as well as the Stellar/DraperU Embark Accelerator.
Founder - Monique Powell (https://www.linkedin.com/in/moniquepowell/):
- 2X Founder (Scaled Caribbean marketplace [QuickCart - Techstars '24] to 60K+ users, doing $4M USD in gross merchandise value)
- Technical Expertise (Worked for 8 years as a Frontend Developer & Designer)
- Marketing Expertise (Previously Regional Marketing Manager at Scotiabank)
- Deep Caribbean Insight (Born and raised in the Caribbean)
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Lead Engineer - Zeljko Kovacevic (https://www.linkedin.com/in/zeljko-kovacevic-17593a6/):
- Senior Blockchain Developer with over 20 years experience
- Multi-chain experience across Stellar, Solana and Ethereum
- Deep expertise in cybersecurity and payment systems
Proof of our Lead Engineer's ability to build on Stellar is apparent from our web app at app.usesendana.com that was built by him and is live in production with over 3,000 registered users and over $350K in transaction volume in 9 weeks. That proof is stronger than any Github URL would be and we would prefer to not openly provide access to our Github repo. There is no greater proof than a live and active product built entirely on Stellar, performing at this level.
Proof of our onchain activity can be viewed at http://onchainanalytics.usesendana.com.
Additional Support During Build:
During the buildout of the listed deliverables, we will hire an additional blockchain developer on a 4-month contract to increase the technical capacity of the team. We will select the additional contractor at that point after standard hiring and screening processes. At least 60 - 70% of the technical work will still be done by our existing Lead Engineer and the rest will still be supervised by him. We will also, as we always have, utilize the services of freelance UI designers and front-end coders as needed.
Monique Powell
By Sendana
Business Banking Tools, Built On Stellar
By Sendana
Global Banking, for the Global South