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By surgepay
SurgePay provides USDC-powered cross-border payment infrastructure for Africa, enabling instant transfers with integrated local currency on/off-ramps. We support both custodial and non-custodial Stellar wallet creation for USDC, EUROC, and XLM, allowing users to choose the custody model that fits their needs while keeping the experience simple for everyday users.
User Tag system (@username) enables Venmo-like payments without long or complex wallet addresses
Automatic USDC trustline creation during wallet setup to eliminate Stellar onboarding friction
Stellar impact: Removes address and trustline complexity, enabling non-crypto users to send and receive USDC seamlessly
SurgePay connects Stellar rails to familiar local payment methods, making it easy to move between fiat and USDC across key African markets.
On-ramp: Local currency → USDC via bank transfer or mobile money
Off-ramp: USDC → local bank accounts or mobile money across supported countries
Supported markets include: Nigeria (NGN), Kenya (KES), Ghana (GHS), Côte d’Ivoire (XOF), Botswana (BWP), South Africa (ZAR), Benin (XOF), and Cameroon (XAF)
Integration: Yellow Card for expanded fiat rails and settlement coverage
Stellar impact: Makes Stellar-based USDC payments accessible to everyday Africans by abstracting crypto complexity behind local rails
SEP PROTOCOL IMPLEMENTATION (SEP-24 ANCHOR ON/OFF-RAMP)
SurgePay implements Stellar ecosystem standards to ensure interoperability, secure authentication, and compliance-aligned deposit/withdraw flows.
SEP-1: stellar.toml published at surgepay.tech/.well-known/stellar.toml
SEP-10: Web authentication for secure account verification
SEP-12: Tiered KYC integration (Tier 0–3)
SEP-24: Interactive deposit/withdrawal flows
Stellar impact: Full compliance with Stellar ecosystem standards while delivering a smooth, user-friendly on/off-ramp experience
Pitch Deck -> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lHbOsCwag2ArPlbNHBemA2E-lhtBjt69/view?usp=sharing
$115.0K
SurgePay is a live, production-ready Stellar application with demonstrated on-chain and off-chain usage across USDC, NGN, and virtual card payment flows.
Live Transaction Dashboard (Production):
We operate a public, real-time dashboard showing live transaction activity across USDC and NGN, including virtual card payments funded via USDC. The dashboard reflects active user transactions, payment volumes, and settlement flows processed through SurgePay’s Stellar-powered infrastructure.
Dashboard (live): https://surgepay-fi.onrender.com
Includes: USDC transfers, NGN conversions, and virtual card payment activity
Signed Commercial Contracts (Redacted):
SurgePay has executed a signed card issuing and processing agreement with Bridge, enabling USDC-funded virtual card payments. This validates institutional trust in SurgePay’s compliance, risk controls, and transaction infrastructure.
In addition, we have agreements supporting expansion into additional African markets using Open Due for broader regional coverage.
Signed contract (redacted):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FjIHU3zgFHuxm4WZuyafBHw9sgezH_7u/view?usp=sharing
Active Social and Community Presence:
SurgePay maintains active social channels where we share product demos, Stellar-based payment flows, and user education content, providing ongoing market validation and community engagement.
Summary of Validation:
Live production system processing real USDC and NGN transactions
Active virtual card payments funded via USDC
Signed commercial agreements with regulated payment partners
Ongoing expansion into multiple African corridors
Public product demos and community engagement
This traction demonstrates that SurgePay is beyond prototype stage and is already delivering real-world value on Stellar today.
Deploy Stellar Anchor Platform (SEP-6 / SEP-24)
Deploy and configure the Stellar Anchor Platform to standardize SurgePay’s existing on-ramp and off-ramp flows into compliant SEP-6 (programmatic) and SEP-24 (interactive) deposit and withdrawal interfaces. This replaces custom anchor logic with SDF’s production-grade Anchor Platform and makes SurgePay discoverable and interoperable with any Stellar wallet or application that supports SEP-24.
How to measure success:
Anchor Platform deployed and running in production
stellar.toml updated with TRANSFER_SERVER and TRANSFER_SERVER_SEP0024 URLs
SEP-24 interactive deposit and withdrawal flow functional for NGN via Yellow Card
Successful test deposit initiated from an external Stellar wallet such as LOBSTR or Freighter using the SEP-24 endpoint
Budget:
Deliverable 1.2: Improve Existing Yellow Card On-Ramp and Off-Ramp
Strengthen the existing Yellow Card integration by adding retry logic, idempotency safeguards, automatic webhook reconciliation, and transaction state recovery. Expand support for additional mobile money corridors and improve failure handling so unsuccessful transactions are automatically refunded without manual intervention.
How to measure success:
Zero dropped transactions during a simulated load test of 100 concurrent on-ramp and off-ramp requests
Admin monitoring dashboard showing real-time transaction status, success and failure rates, and average settlement times
Automatic refund execution confirmed for failed transactions
Budget:
Deliverable 1.3: OpenZeppelin Fee Abstraction (Soroban Paymaster)
Integrate OpenZeppelin’s fee abstraction framework on Soroban to allow users to pay Stellar transaction fees in USDC instead of XLM. This removes the requirement for users to hold XLM and significantly simplifies onboarding for non-crypto-native users in African markets who primarily transact in USDC.
How to measure success:
End-to-end testnet demonstration of a USDC transfer from a wallet with zero XLM balance
Transaction fees successfully deducted in USDC using an OpenZeppelin paymaster contract
Recorded demo video showing the full user flow
Budget:
Total Tranche 1 Budget:
Tranche 2 — Bridge Integration for Card Funding & USD On-Ramp Total Budget: $26,000
Deliverable 1:
Bridge Cards API Integration — Fund Cards from Stellar Wallets Budget: $12,000
Integrate Bridge's Cards API using the card wallet funding strategy on Stellar. SurgePay provides a card account through the Bridge API with Stellar set as the funding chain and USDC as the currency. Bridge returns a Stellar deposit address, and SurgePay transfers USDC from the user's existing Stellar wallet to this address using a single on-chain Stellar transaction. The card balance updates automatically. This makes virtual card funding fully Stellar-native with no intermediate ledgers or off-chain transfers, and is significantly cheaper than the current flow.
Success Criteria (Testnet no Bridge production approval required):
End-to-end testnet demo showing card creation in SurgePay, USDC transfer from user's Stellar wallet to the Bridge deposit address, and card balance reflecting the funded amount.
Transaction visible and verifiable on the Stellar testnet explorer.
card_account.updated webhook received, processed, and confirmed against card balance.
Payments-Grade Requirements:
Replay protection: every inbound webhook is validated against a persisted event ID store before processing; duplicate event IDs are detected, logged, and discarded without triggering any state change; idempotency enforced on all card funding transactions so a replayed Stellar transaction hash never triggers a second card funding attempt; verified by a dedicated test case that replays a completed funding event and asserts no duplicate state change occurs.
Webhook signature verification: All Bridge webhook payloads verified using HMAC-SHA256 before any processing logic executes; raw request body used for signature computation; requests with missing, malformed, or invalid signatures rejected with a 401 response and logged; unit tests cover valid payloads, tampered payloads, and missing headers.
Reconciliation rules: Scheduled reconciliation job (every 15 minutes, configurable) cross-references SurgePay's internal card funding ledger against on-chain Stellar transaction records and the Bridge card balance API; any discrepancy — confirmed on-chain transaction with no card balance update, or a webhook received with no matching internal record — triggers an automatic alert and places the transaction in a pending review queue; all reconciliation runs logged with timestamps, transaction references, and resolution status.
Monitoring & incident response: Structured logging at every stage transaction submission, deposit address resolution, webhook receipt, signature verification, balance confirmation, and reconciliation check; alerts configured for failed signature verifications, reconciliation discrepancies, webhook processing errors, and Stellar transaction failures; incident response run-book included in the repository covering how to identify a stuck transaction, manually trigger reconciliation, replay a missed webhook, and escalation steps.
Reproducible load test plan: load test suite included in the repository targeting the card funding webhook handler and card creation endpoint; baseline targets of 50 concurrent webhook deliveries processed without error and p95 latency under 500ms; tests written in k6 or Locust, fully reproducible from the repository with documented setup instructions; testnet run results included as part of the deliverable submission.
Deliverable 2: Bridge Virtual Accounts — USD On-Ramp to Stellar: $8,000
Integrate Bridge Virtual Accounts to enable USD on-ramp via ACH or wire transfer. SurgePay creates a virtual account for each user through the Bridge API and sets the user's Stellar wallet as the payout destination. When USD is deposited into the virtual account, Bridge converts it to USDC and sends it directly to the user's Stellar wallet. This opens a new on-ramp corridor for diaspora users and international senders.
Success Criteria (Testnet/Staging only — no Bridge production approval required):
Virtual account created successfully via Bridge API on testnet
Simulated USD deposit completed, converted to USDC by Bridge, and USDC received in the user's Stellar wallet on testnet
virtual_account.activity.updated webhook received, processed, and wallet balance confirmed
Payments-Grade Requirements:
Replay protection: each virtual_account.activity.created and virtual_account.activity.updated event deduplicated using Bridge's activity ID; activity ID checked against a persisted processed-events store before executing any wallet credit; duplicate activity IDs discarded with no effect on wallet state; test case confirms replaying the same activity event does not result in a double credit to the user's Stellar wallet.
Webhook signature verification: all virtual account webhook payloads verified using Bridge's HMAC-SHA256 signature before processing; invalid or missing signatures rejected at the handler boundary and logged; unit tests cover valid signatures, tampered payloads, missing headers, and expired timestamps.
Reconciliation rules: reconciliation job cross-references the Bridge virtual account activity log against SurgePay's internal on-ramp ledger and the user's Stellar wallet balance; confirms correct USDC amount received on Stellar, transaction memo matches expected reference, and wallet credit recorded in SurgePay's ledger; discrepancies beyond the expected settlement window trigger an alert and a hold on the affected record pending manual review; reconciliation logs retained and auditable.
Monitoring & incident response: structured logging across virtual account creation, deposit simulation, USDC payout receipt, webhook processing, and reconciliation outcome; alerts fire on webhook signature failures, reconciliation mismatches, delayed or missing USDC payouts beyond a configurable threshold, and Bridge API errors; incident response run-book documents how to investigate a missing USDC credit, manually reconcile a virtual account activity, and replay a missed webhook; run-book included in the repository.
Reproducible load test plan: load test suite covers the virtual account webhook handler targeting 50 concurrent virtual_account.activity.updated events processed without error and p95 latency under 500ms; fully reproducible from the repository with documented setup instructions; testnet run results included as part of the deliverable
Deliverable 3: Bridge Webhook Handling & KYC Mapping Budget: $6,000
Build a centralized, production-grade webhook handler for all Bridge events: card_transaction.created, card_transaction.updated.status_transitioned, card_account.updated, virtual_account.activity.created, and virtual_account.activity.updated.
Map existing YouVerify KYC data to Bridge's customer onboarding API so that users are not re-verified. Existing verified KYC data flows directly into Bridge customer creation with no additional friction for the user.
Success Criteria (Testnet/Staging only — no Bridge production approval required):
All Bridge webhook event types received, validated, signature-verified, and persisted
Bridge customers created programmatically using existing YouVerify KYC data
No additional KYC step required for existing verified users
Full integration test suite passing with reproducible results
Payments-Grade Requirements:
Replay protection: centralized event ID store shared across all Bridge event types; every incoming event checked before routing to its handler; idempotency enforced at the handler level for all downstream state changes including customer creation, transaction status updates, and account updates; test coverage includes replayed events for each supported Bridge event type.
Webhook signature verification: signature verification implemented as middleware applied uniformly to all Bridge webhook routes; middleware recomputes HMAC-SHA256 digest over the raw request body and compares against the Bridge signature header; any mismatch results in immediate rejection before payload reaches any handler logic; middleware unit tested independently with valid, invalid, and edge-case payloads.
Reconciliation rules: all persisted webhook events stored with full payload, processing status, timestamp, and associated internal record reference; reconciliation utility identifies events received but not successfully processed, events where downstream state change did not complete, and gaps in event sequences such as a card_transaction.updated received without a prior card_transaction.created; identified gaps generate alerts and are flagged for review.
Monitoring & incident response: structured logs for every event covering receipt, signature check, deduplication result, routing, processing outcome, and errors; health check endpoint confirms handler availability; alerts configured for processing error rates exceeding defined threshold, repeated signature failures from the same source, and event processing latency exceeding acceptable bounds; incident response run-book covers diagnosing a failed webhook event, reprocessing manually, rotating the Bridge webhook secret, and verifying KYC mapping integrity; run-book included in the repository.
Reproducible load test plan: load test suite covers the full webhook handler under mixed event load simulating concurrent delivery of all supported Bridge event types; targets 100 mixed concurrent events processed without error or data loss, p95 latency under 500ms, and zero duplicate state changes under replay conditions; fully reproducible from the repository; testnet run results submitted as part of the deliverable
Total Tranche 2 budget:
Allbridge integration to bridge USDC from Base and EVM chains to Stellar
Integrate the Allbridge Core SDK to enable cross-chain USDC transfers from Base and other EVM chains into Stellar. Users holding USDC on Base, Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, or TRON can bridge directly into their SurgePay Stellar wallet. This allows users to consolidate funds on Stellar for card funding and off-ramping.
How to measure success:
User initiates USDC bridge from Base to Stellar in the SurgePay app
Allbridge processes the cross-chain transfer
USDC arrives in the user’s Stellar wallet
Transactions verifiable on both source-chain and Stellar explorers
Support for Base, ERC20, Solana, Polygon, and TRC20 to Stellar
Budget:
Mainnet deployment of all integrations
Deploy the Anchor Platform, Bridge Cards and Virtual Accounts, and Allbridge cross-chain bridging to mainnet. Configure production API keys, Stellar mainnet accounts, webhook endpoints, monitoring, alerting, and infrastructure. Includes database migrations, environment configuration, and DNS setup.
How to measure success:
All endpoints live on surgepay.tech
SEP-24 interactive flows working with real NGN
Bridge card funded with real USDC on Stellar mainnet
Allbridge cross-chain transfer completed on mainnet
All transactions verifiable on Stellar mainnet explorer
Budget:
Frontend integration and mobile app UX
Ship mobile app UI for Bridge card creation and funding, Bridge virtual account deposits, Allbridge cross-chain bridging, and fee abstraction indicators showing that no XLM is required. Deliver complete end-to-end flows with loading states, error handling, and confirmation screens.
How to measure success:
All flows accessible in the production mobile app
Screen recordings of each flow
User can create a Bridge card, fund it from Stellar, bridge USDC from Base, and off-ramp to NGN entirely within the app
Budget:
Professional user testing and documentation
Conduct structured user testing with real users in Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana. Document all APIs, integrations, and system architecture. Publish public developer documentation.
How to measure success:
User testing report with at least 20 participants
Public documentation published
Architecture diagrams completed and accessible
Budget:
Monitoring, alerting, and operational readiness
Implement production monitoring dashboards covering Anchor Platform, Bridge, and Allbridge integrations. Configure alerts for failed transactions, webhook failures, and balance thresholds. Create operational runbooks for incident response.
How to measure success:
Monitoring dashboards live
Alerts configured and tested
Internal operational runbooks published
Budget:
Total Tranche 3 budget:
Ayotunde Elegba — Founder & Cloud Engineer Jabbar holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science with a minor in Business from the University of Missouri–St. Louis, where he also led multiple student organizations. He holds an AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification and has 6+ years of professional experience across regulated and enterprise environments. At World Wide Technology (WWT), he worked within the Advanced Technology Center on large-scale enterprise infrastructure engagements. At SSM Health and BJC Healthcare — two of the largest hospital systems in the United States — he contributed to advanced analytics dashboard development, built and maintained ML models for data cleaning and enrichment, and worked directly with stakeholders to translate business requirements into production-grade data infrastructure. He has also founded two ventures: Edurain, an education-focused startup, and Bookt, demonstrating a track record of building and shipping products end to end. At SurgePay, he architects the secure, fault-tolerant cloud infrastructure powering the mobile apps, APIs, and Stellar wallet systems.
Uvie Tobo — Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer Uvie began his career as a banker before advancing into product management, ultimately leading an offshore product deployment team managing cross-timezone delivery with an engineering team based in India. He has held roles at Bank of America and Commerce Bank, two major regulated U.S. financial institutions, giving him deep familiarity with compliance-driven product delivery in high-stakes financial environments. At SurgePay, he co-founded the company alongside Jabbar and drives structured delivery, compliance-aligned execution, and product roadmap discipline. LinkedIn
Osagie Abel — CTO Osagie is a backend engineer with deep experience in payments infrastructure at institutional scale. At Remita — one of Nigeria's most widely used payment platforms — he worked extensively on the core payment system integrated with national examination bodies including WAEC and JAMB, processing over 100 million transactions upon release. He also gained experience at FBNQuest, the investment banking arm of First Bank of Nigeria, further deepening his expertise in regulated financial systems. At SurgePay, he leads all wallet and payment architecture with a strong focus on scalability, security, and USD/NGN integrations on Stellar. LinkedIn
Engineering Team
Ayomide Fagbemi — Senior Backend Engineer Ayomide holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Lagos and joined SurgePay as a founding engineer, bringing hands-on experience building Django-based backend systems from the ground up. He previously worked at Poda and Eventpadi, where he built high-volume processing systems and payments APIs. At SurgePay, he leads backend engineering on core payment flows and API infrastructure. LinkedIn
Rafeeq Shodeinde — Contract Blockchain Engineer Rafeeq holds a Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, graduated Summa Cum Laude, from Saint Louis University (SLU), Missouri, and a Master's degree in Computer Science with a specialization in Computer Vision. He worked at JPMorgan Chase in the automation department, where he contributed to the rebuild of the auto loan servicing application, handling backend development and production deployment infrastructure including ServiceNow change management, cron job configuration, and deployment pipelines. He brings institutional-grade engineering discipline to SurgePay's blockchain layer, leading smart contract architecture and enforcing secure protocol standards across Stellar integrations. LinkedIn
Allan Njeri — Blockchain Engineer Allan studied at Missouri State University and has hands-on Web3 engineering experience including integrating local bank connections into HuruPay during its early stage — giving him direct experience building fintech payment infrastructure from scratch. He has since worked on Stellar and Solana integrations for wallet connectivity and cross-chain payment flows. At SurgePay, he contributes directly to Stellar protocol integrations and on-chain transaction infrastructure.
Rufai Abdul-Qudus — Mobile Developer Rufai has 6+ years of professional experience and holds a Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, graduated Summa Cum Laude, from the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), as well as a Master's degree in Computer Science with a focus on Computer Vision. He has professional experience at Qurvix and AFT Solutions, where he built production software systems. He specializes in React Native development with a strong emphasis on low-end device optimization and emerging market performance. Beyond mobile, he brings backend experience in Go (Golang) and has built point-of-sale (POS) system applications, giving him a well-rounded understanding of the full payment experience from backend transaction processing through to the end-user interface. At SurgePay, he builds mobile applications with a focus on security, reliability, and accessibility for users across Africa operating on constrained devices and networks. LinkedIn
Cornelius Agah — QA Engineer Cornelius studied at Minnesota State University and gained professional QA experience at Anheuser-Busch, where he contributed to delivery system software testing. He works across a broad testing stack including MSTest, NUnit, xUnit.net, and BrowserStack, covering automated unit, integration, and end-to-end testing. At SurgePay, he is responsible for ensuring production-grade reliability across all payment flows, webhook handling, and Stellar integrations before any code ships. LinkedIn
Operations & Growth
Modupeola Elegba — HR Lead Modupeola holds a Bachelor of Arts in HR and a Master of Science in Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) from the University of Lagos. She has broad HR expertise spanning hiring, interviewing, team culture, payroll, and compliance. Beyond her work at Swift Oil and Gas, she has served as a consultant to PaidHR, a leading HR and payroll platform in Nigeria, advising on HR operations and systems. At SurgePay, she oversees hiring, compliance, and performance management systems. LinkedIn
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Ayomide Surgepay
Cornelius Agah - Surgepay
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Jabbar E
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