Stellar Community Fund

By Centiiv

Payment Infra for Borderless Commerce

SCF #36

$51.3K

Build

Awarded

Centiiv is building a decentralized liquidity network that empowers businesses in Africa to trade globally without the friction of traditional FX bottlenecks, delays, or high fees.

Products & Services

Payment Gateway: Multi-currency payment gateway. Fiat and stablecoin integration.
Neobank: Multi-currency wallets (NGN, USD, USDT, USDC, cNGN) with stablecoin rails and escrow feature to enable merchants send, receive and store funds in multiple currencies.
Payment Links: Web-based tools enabling merchants to receive local and international payments
Escrow System: Secure transaction flow for B2B deals with funds held and released upon delivery
Payment API: Plug-and-play APIs for businesses to integrate wallets, escrow and payments
Zend: User-centric dApp for making in-store purchases with stablecoins, conversions and payments (Live in Nigeria and Kenya)

Soroban

Yes

Requested Budget

$51.3K

Success Criteria

Success Metrics (12-Month Targets)

1. Transaction Volume Growth: Achieve $10 million in monthly transaction volume within 12 months.

2. Liquidity Provider (LP) Network Expansion: Onboard 100 active liquidity providers within Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. LPs include FX aggregators, institutional vaults, stablecoin treasuries, OTC desks, e.t.c.

3. Aggregator Onboarding: Integrate 500 B2B aggregators (including fintechs, payment processors, B2B marketplaces) via APIs, sandbox testing, and revenue-sharing infrastructure.

4. SME Penetration & Volume: Drive at least $2M in monthly volume from SME transactions.

5. API Usage Growth: Target: Grow API usage by 500% within 12 months by offering SDKs for fintechs, webhooks for invoice automation, and no-code plug-ins.

6. Brand Positioning: Become the first go-to solution for businesses scaling cross-border amidst liquidity crunches.

With Centiiv's strategic onboarding of LPs, aggregators, and SMEs, and a focus on API-first delivery, we are building an ecosystem that:

Solves liquidity bottlenecks,
Enables seamless scaling for businesses,
And opens earning opportunities for every participant in the network.

Go-To-Market Plan

Market Entry Strategy

Beachhead Market Focus

Initial concentration on Nigeria's technology and service sectors with demonstrated payment pain points and higher average transaction values, allowing rapid validation of product-market fit.

Go-to-Market Execution

1. Strategic Partnerships: Position Centiiv as the backend engine for global movement of funds.

Industry players (e.g., Chambers of Commerce, existing anchors on Stellar, venture studios, e.t.c.)
Banks and FX platforms looking to go digital

2. Hackathons & Developer Community: Drive integrations and developer adoption:
- Launch the “Centiiv Hack Series” across multiple cities e.g., Lagos, Nairobi, Cape Town e.t.c.
- Bounties for no-code plugin, multi-currency invoice builder, etc.
3. Embedded Distribution: Drive usage via other platforms without needing direct onboarding.
Embed Centiiv in BAAS products like Railsr, Mono, OnePipe
Offer white-labeled SDK to ERPs and e-commerce platforms

4. Content-Led Growth: Build thought leadership around payments, liquidity, and global commerce.

5. Event Marketing: Participate in events including tech and SME focused, as sponsor, hosting panel sessions. Partner with industry focused event organisers e.g., SME fairs, Stellar Meridian, Africa Fintech Summit, Nigeria Fintech Forum, Seamless Middle East, MoneyAfrica, Gitex Africa.

Traction Evidence

1. Launched Products:

Payment Gateway: Multi-currency payment gateway. Fiat and stablecoin integration.
- Neobank: Multi-currency wallets (NGN, USD, USDT, USDC, cNGN) with stablecoin rails and escrow feature to enable merchants send, receive and store funds in multiple currencies.
- Payment Links: Web-based tools enabling merchants to receive local and international payments
- Escrow System: Secure transaction flow for B2B deals with funds held and released upon delivery
- Payment API: Plug-and-play APIs for businesses to integrate wallets, escrow and payments for developer and no-code builders using WooCommerce/Wordpress.
- Zend: User-centric dApp for making in-store purchases with stablecoins, conversions and payments (Live in Nigeria and Kenya)
In Progress:
- Liquidity Provider (LP) Network on Stellar to solve cross-border payment bottlenecks.
- Partnership with South African payment rail

2. User & Transaction Metrics

User Base: 43 SMEs and 16 startups onboarded organically.
Transaction Volume:
- Over $3.7 million in combined processed across 5 currencies (NGN, USD, EUR, KES, RMB).
- 57,000+ API calls on third party integrations

3. Partnerships & Integrations

Integrated With:
- Top-tier Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) provider to power fiat account issuance.
- Tier 2 compliance partner, recognized by the central bank.

4. Community Building:

Bi-weekly business operations newsletter with 300+ subscribers.
200+ discovery calls with conversion rate of 40%.

5. Recognition

2x Stellar Bootcamp Finalist
Web3athon x Stellar hackathon second runner-up 2022
Pitch2Win Finalist 2023
Standard Chartered - Women-in-Tech Winner 2023

Tranche 1 (Deliverable Roadmap) - MVP

Phase 1 – Initial Setup (Budget: $24,300)

Goal: Comprehensive system design, compliance and legal framework, smart contract and basic UI for LP section.

Comprehensive system design and integration into existing system:
Soroban Devs (2 contractual engineers): $12,000 (Upfront)
Backend Dev (1 contractual engineer): $2000
Frontend Dev (1 contractual engineers): $2000
Legal Advisory + Draft LP Agreements: $1000
Compliance Integration (OFAC, KYC): $500
Cloud Setup & DevOps (Docker, CI/CD): $3000
RPC (Blockdaemon): $300
Node hosting for 3 LPs (Blockops/Chainstack): $500
Contingency: $3000

Sub-total: $24,000

Deliverables:

Smart contract codebase
Frontend and Backend codebase
LP dashboard (mock)
Legal agreement drafts
KYC flow
Cloud + CI/CD pipelines running

NB: We have existing engineers in-house, we will be onboarding more hands to work with us in delivering on the timeline for the project.

Estimated Date of Completion: 31st August, 2025

On the assumption that the project will kick-off by June

Tranche 2 (Deliverable Roadmap) - Testnet

Phase 2 – Testnet MVP (Budget: $6,500)

Goal: Deploy smart contract to testnet, onboard and manage LPs in sandbox environment, simulate transactions and commencement of QA.

Smart Contract Audit 1
QA & Manual Testing: $2,500
LP Support Rep/Devrel: $2,000
Monitoring and Logging Tools Setup (Betterstack, Sentry): $1,000

Deliverables:

Fully functioning Testnet version of contract
Integration of backend and frontend with smart contract
Aggregator Dashboard (Mock)
Onboard 3 LPs (test mode)
Simulations for stablecoin on-ramp and fiat settlements

Sub-total: $6500

Estimated Date of Completion: 31st October, 2025

Tranche 3 (Deliverable Roadmap) - Mainnet

Phase 3 – Mainnet Rollout (Budget: $20,500)

Goal: Launch on Stellar mainnet, onboard 10 LPs to pilot test on live, and process up to $200k in transaction volume.

Soroban Smart Contract Dev (2 devs, 2 months): $8000 (Final payment)
Backend Dev (1 devs, 2 months): $1000
Frontend Dev (2 devs, 2 months): $1000
Smart Contract Audit 2
QA & Manual Testing: $1,000
Incentives for performing LPs: $5000
Launch Aggregator & LP API Docs: $500
Devrel & Support: $1,000
Contingency: $3000

Deliverables:

Mainnet smart contract deployment
Full functionality of protocol (From frontend to backend to contract)
LPs live transactions
First $200k volume
Live dashboard
Compliance active for real-world operations

Sub-total: $20,500

Estimated Date of Completion: 22nd December, 2025

Team

The team comprises of individuals who are skilled across diverse niches as relevant to the sector we are playing in. The founder and CEO has seven years of experience in software engineering, Blockchain/DeFi and management consulting while gathering industry knowledge in payments and financial services. Other C-level executives have 10 years combined experience in marketing, communications, especially in the fintech and commerce industries.

Our team, aside from possessing the necessary skillset, has proven commitment to the project. Despite the challenges of operating in the industry, we are quite resilient and adaptive to see things work at all costs.