With remittance fees in Sub-Saharan Africa averaging 7.9% on a $200 transfer, Lipaworld set out to build a faster, fairer alternative. By partnering with Orca, the platform is ensuring that every stablecoin-powered payment is protected in real time.

For millions across Africa, sending money across borders is more than a financial convenience; it’s a lifeline. Migrant workers send wages to support families, digital freelancers depend on international clients, and small merchants rely on remittances to source supplies.

Yet traditional remittance channels are broken: Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most expensive remittance corridor globally, with fees averaging 7.9% on a $200 transfer, and transactions that often take days to arrive.

For the Lipaworld team, this challenge is personal. As immigrants living in the US and the UK, co-founders Jonathan Katende and Victor Bagu experienced firsthand the difficulties of sending money to family in South Africa, DRC and Zimbabwe. Existing methods often excluded informal or undocumented recipients, leaving families without reliable access to funds. The duo created Lipaworld to bridge that gap and provide a solution tailored to the needs of the African diaspora, freelancers, and businesses.

But building fast, affordable, and borderless payments at scale introduces new risks, which is why Lipaworld turned to Orca to ensure every transaction remains safe, compliant, and trusted.

The challenge: scaling without risk

Lipaworld combines stablecoin rails, a digital voucher marketplace, and seamless wallet transfers to give people excluded from traditional banking the ability to earn, spend, and send with ease. Today, it operates in more than a dozen countries, reaching freelancers, diaspora communities, and small traders across the continent.

But rapid growth also brings exposure; the very same speed and borderless design that make Lipaworld valuable are magnets for fraudsters. Synthetic identities, voucher abuse, and mule networks can quickly undermine trust, and identity fraud is particularly severe in Africa, where nearly 80% of reported cases involve stolen or manipulated ID cards.

Across the industry, the risks continue to rise: in 2024, 60% of fintechs and financial institutions reported an increase in fraud attempts, while global spend on fraud detection and prevention was projected to hit USD 21.1 billion in 2025. Adding to this, new forms of deception are emerging, with deepfake-enabled fraud incidents surging by 700% since 2023.

At the same time, regulators expect airtight compliance from day one, with heavy penalties for missteps ranging from fines to restrictions or even shutdowns. For Lipaworld, the challenge was clear: scale quickly, but protect every single transaction.

”Partnering with Orca Fraud was a no-brainer because it strengthens our commitment to protecting user funds. By combining advanced transaction monitoring, anti-money laundering tools, and measures to curb illicit flows, we’re not only safeguarding our users but also ensuring the long-term sustainability of our business and the communities we serve.” — Jonathan Katende, Lipaworld Co-founder and CEO

The solution: embedding Orca’s real-time fraud orchestration

To solve this, Lipaworld teamed up with Orca. Unlike generic fraud solutions built for mature markets, Orca understands mobile-first payments, thin-file users, and high-risk corridors where fraud patterns look very different from the global norm.

Once integrated, Orca became an invisible safety net across Lipaworld’s ecosystem, providing:

• Real-time protection. Every transfer, voucher, and wallet payment is screened instantly for anomalies, mule activity, and sanctions exposure.
• Context-aware detection. Corridor-specific rules reduce false positives by adapting to local behaviour patterns.
• Graph-based insights. Suspicious accounts are linked across borders, exposing mule networks before they spread.
• Automated compliance. Sanctions checks, PEP screening, and audit trails are built in, easing regulatory requirements.
• Fast, lightweight integration. Orca’s API-first design meant Lipaworld could deploy protection without slowing its product roadmap.

For Lipaworld, this isn’t just fraud prevention: it’s the confidence to expand boldly while keeping user trust intact.

The results: trusted growth at scale

The impact of combining stablecoin innovation with real-time fraud resilience is already visible:

• Faster expansion. New remittance corridors can now launch in weeks instead of months, with fraud controls that scale alongside.
• Operational efficiency. Lipaworld’s risk team spends less time firefighting manual reviews and more time focusing on long-term strategy.
• Compliance confidence. Automated reporting and audit trails make regulatory engagement smoother across multiple jurisdictions.

Beyond metrics, the biggest result has been trust. In regions where reputation spreads by word of mouth, that trust is everything. It drives adoption, builds loyalty, and sets Lipaworld apart in a competitive market.

Looking ahead

Lipaworld is doubling down on its mission to make money movement seamless and borderless. Its upcoming partnership with a soon-to-be-announced travel partner is set to bring stablecoin-powered payments into daily transportation across African cities, making commuting more affordable and accessible.

The company is also preparing to launch the Lipaworld Stablecoin Card, giving users reliable access to subscription payments and recurring services across borders.

Together, these milestones reflect an ambition to make stablecoins practical, everyday financial tools – not just assets for the future, but enablers of daily life today.

Trust as the foundation

Fraud prevention is often seen as a cost, but for Lipaworld, it’s the foundation of growth. Without trust, even the cheapest remittance loses its value. By embedding Orca’s fraud resilience at the heart of its infrastructure, Lipaworld can protect every transaction - from a small voucher redemption to a high-value cross-border transfer - without compromising speed or simplicity.

Together, Lipaworld and Orca are proving that financial inclusion and fraud resilience are inseparable. Borderless doesn’t have to mean lawless. When trust is built into the very infrastructure of payments, money can move safely, sustainably, and at the scale people need.
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