Luno, a cryptocurrency platform, has acquired Kenyan cross-border payments company GTXN. The acquisition brings licensed collection and payout infrastructure into Luno, enabling it to expand into business payments across emerging markets. Luno co-founder Marcus Swanepoel serves as chief executive, while GTXN co-founder Dan Kleinbaum will remain chief executive of the business following the acquisition. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The acquisition combines two fintech businesses built by founders with experience tackling financial infrastructure in emerging markets. Luno was founded in 2013 by Swanepoel and Timothy Stranex, initially building a cryptocurrency platform focused on making digital assets accessible in emerging and frontier markets. GTXN, on the other hand, was built around foreign exchange and cross-border treasury services for corporates and institutions in East Africa.
GTXN will operate as Luno's cross-border payments capability, giving businesses a single route to collect and pay out money between developed and emerging markets. Transactions will run through Luno's payment rails and settle against its liquidity, reducing the need to assemble separate banks and payment providers for different parts of a transaction. This move pushes Luno beyond its traditional role as a cryptocurrency platform and deeper into the infrastructure used to move money between markets.
The acquisition addresses the challenges of cross-border payments, which often rely on correspondent banking, adding time and cost to a transaction. Each intermediary can introduce another settlement process, currency conversion, and fee, while compliance and sanctions screening are repeated across the payment chain. This problem is particularly pronounced in emerging markets, where local banks may not have direct relationships with institutions in destination markets.
For Kleinbaum, the acquisition is the second major fintech transaction involving a company he has built. He previously co-founded Beyonic, a mobile-money platform that operated across seven African markets before being acquired by Onafriq in 2020. Kleinbaum brings more than a decade of experience building payments infrastructure in emerging markets to the Luno business, which is central to what Luno is buying.
The acquisition comes as South Africa develops new rules governing cross-border capital flows involving crypto assets. National Treasury and the South African Reserve Bank have published a draft Capital Flow Management Regulations framework and a Draft Crypto Asset Manual for Cross-Border Activities. The proposed rules aim to provide greater oversight of international financial flows as crypto assets become increasingly integrated with conventional financial services.
For companies moving money between developed and emerging markets, the acquisition could reduce the number of providers and intermediaries involved in a transaction. The immediate proposition is simpler: collect and pay out through one provider, with transactions moving across Luno's rails and settling against its liquidity. The deal marks another step in Luno's expansion beyond retail cryptocurrency trading and toward institutional settlement and financial infrastructure.
Key points
- Luno acquires GTXN to expand into cross-border payments.
- The acquisition addresses challenges in cross-border payments, particularly in emerging markets.
- The deal marks Luno's expansion into institutional settlement and financial infrastructure.
