Problem
People in Lusophone Africa are economically active but locked out of the global economy. In Angola, the kwanza’s 2023–24 slide pushed inflation to a 31% peak, and dollars are still hard to get. In Cabo Verde, remittances are 12.3% of GDP, yet sending $200 to Sub-Saharan Africa costs 8.5% on average, the highest of any region. Remittance operators reach these markets but are expensive and give users no account. Global wallets like Wise offer dollar and euro balances but don’t serve residents of Cabo Verde or Angola, and local banks and mobile money offer limited access to dollars, euros and international payments. Millions of people and their families abroad have no simple, affordable way to hold stable money, receive from the diaspora or pay across borders.
Solution
Zimbo is a digital account built for Lusophone Africa, running on Stellar. Every account holds dollars as USDC, set up automatically at signup, so users never have to deal with crypto.
Hold: open an account in minutes and keep savings in a stable currency instead of a volatile local one.
Send: pay anyone instantly and for free by ZimboTag, a simple username, or to any Stellar address.
Cash in and out: deposit and withdraw cash in escudos and kwanzas through MoneyGram, receive dollars by bank transfer through a personal USD account, and use Pix in Brazil.
Receive from the diaspora: a son in Portugal opens Zimbo and sends money home; his mother in Cabo Verde receives it in seconds, at zero cost.
Next, we’re adding euro balances (key for Cabo Verde, whose escudo is pegged to the euro), named USD and EUR accounts for salaries and client payments, card deposits for the diaspora, and transfers to anyone by email or phone, where every transfer becomes an invitation.
Business model
Business model: Zimbo is free for consumers today: no fees on accounts, ZimboTag transfers or receiving money. This drives adoption and on-chain volume. Revenue will come from four sources as the network grows:
Business accounts: paid accounts for companies to receive client payments and pay suppliers across borders.
High-volume flows: fees on payroll and large-scale remittances, where businesses already pay much more through banks today.
Visa card: interchange revenue once the card launches, unlocked at $250,000 in monthly volume.
Yield on balances: a share of the yield earned on user balances through a regulated provider, with the rest passed on to users.
Market
Global market: remittances to low- and middle-income countries are a ~$690 billion market, and Sub-Saharan Africa alone received $54 billion in 2023, more than its foreign direct investment.
Our market: Lusophone Africa (Angola, Mozambique, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé) has over 70 million people, plus a diaspora in Portugal, Brazil, France and the US. These flows run both ways: in Cabo Verde remittances are around 12% of GDP, while Angola sends money out, mostly to Portugal. Beyond remittances, these people need what Zimbo offers every day: a stable dollar or euro balance, salaries and client payments from abroad, and cross-border payments with Brazil and Europe.
Starting point: Cabo Verde and Angola, where our cash rails are already live and 24,000 people are waiting to join.
Competitors
Remittance operators like Western Union and Remitly reach Angola and Cabo Verde, but they’re expensive and give users no account: money arrives as a one-off payout, not a balance they can hold or reuse. MoneyGram is in this space too, but for Zimbo it’s a partner, our cash-in and cash-out rail.
Global wallets like Wise offer dollar and euro balances, but they don’t serve residents of Cabo Verde or Angola.
Local banks and mobile money, such as Multicaixa Express and Unitel Money in Angola, work well for local payments but offer limited access to dollars, euros and international transfers.
No specialized player serves Lusophone Africa’s flows with Brazil, Portugal and the diaspora. Zimbo combines what these alternatives lack: a dollar account, free instant transfers by ZimboTag, local cash rails in escudos and kwanzas, and access for the diaspora that sends money home.
Competitive differentiation
Built for this market. We’re Portuguese-speaking founders with a Cabo Verdean co-founder, focused only on Lusophone Africa’s flows with Brazil, Portugal and the diaspora, a market no specialized player serves today.
Rails already live. Cash-in and cash-out in escudos and kwanzas through MoneyGram, USD bank deposits and Pix are working on Stellar mainnet now. Competitors would need to rebuild these integrations market by market.
An account, not a payout. Unlike remittance operators, money arrives as a balance users can hold in dollars, send for free by ZimboTag or cash out when they need.
Network growth built in. Every user joins through an invite from someone they already transact with, and families bring the diaspora in. 24,000 people joined our waitlist this way.
Near-zero cost. Stellar settles in seconds for fractions of a cent, so we can offer free transfers where others charge 8.5% on average.
Transparent by design. Every transaction is public and verifiable at dashboard.zimb
Entry barrier
Network effects. Zimbo grows through invites between people who already send money to each other. Every ZimboTag, payment page and transfer to a new contact pulls in another user, and once a family and its diaspora are on Zimbo, moving them elsewhere means moving the whole network.
Hard-won rails. Cash-in and cash-out in escudos and kwanzas, USD accounts, Pix and soon euro accounts required partner approvals, compliance and integration work that a new entrant would have to repeat market by market.
Local trust and knowledge. A Cabo Verdean co-founder, user interviews in Cabo Verde and Angola, and support through WhatsApp give us an understanding of these communities that global players don’t have and won’t prioritize for markets this size.
First-mover brand. As far as we know, Zimbo is the first Stellar-based consumer account built for Cabo Verde and Angola, with 24,000 people already waiting to join.
Volume unlocks. Features like our Visa card unlock at $250,000 in monthly volume,
Traction
Yes. Zimbo went live on Stellar mainnet in October 2026, invite-only, and every metric is public and verifiable on-chain at dashboard.zimbo.africa (transactions, volume, active wallets and balances).
Users: ~600 registered users across our first app and the new one, with about 30 already on the new mainnet app.
Demand: 24,000 people on the waitlist for the new app, built through a member-get-member campaign where each referral moves the user up the line. Our launch video reached 602,000+ views on Instagram.
Product: live features include free ZimboTag transfers, MoneyGram cash-in and cash-out in escudos and kwanzas, a personal USD account via Bridge, and Pix for Brazilian users.
User research: structured interviews and feedback sessions in Cabo Verde and Angola, which led us to run invites and support through WhatsApp and Messenger.
Ecosystem: we’re closing a Stellar Community Fund grant to build euro balances, named accounts and card deposits.