Investing in the Future of Fintech: How Payment Innovation Drives Portfolio Growth

Explore how cross-border payments, digital wallets, and embedded finance drive fintech growth. See how Unipesa and Velex Investments capture the upside.

Africa Invest Wire: Velex Investments

The financial world is undergoing a structural shift. Payments, once considered the “pipes” of finance, have become the centrepiece of innovation. Cross-border settlements that used to take days now clear in seconds. Digital wallets have evolved from a niche to a mainstream phenomenon, reshaping consumer behavior across continents. Embedded finance is turning non-financial companies into financial service providers at a scale few imagined possible a decade ago.

For investors, these changes are not background noise. They represent one of the most compelling growth stories in modern finance. Platforms like Unipesa, which specialise in frictionless payment infrastructure across emerging markets, are creating entirely new economic pathways. At the same time, firms like Velex Investments, a shareholder of Unipesa, are proving that the ability to identify, evaluate, and back the right fintech players can unlock outsized returns for forward-looking portfolios.

This article explores how payment innovation is fueling the next wave of investment opportunities – and how investors can position themselves to capture the upside.

Why Payments Are No Longer a Utility

Traditionally, payment systems were considered commoditised infrastructure: necessary, but not particularly profitable. The sector was dominated by banks, and the margins were extremely thin. That assumption no longer holds.

Three shifts have elevated payments into an investment frontier:

1. Globalisation of commerce – Cross-border trade, freelancing, and digital exports have exploded. Traditional correspondent banking cannot keep up with the demand for instant, low-cost settlements.

2. Mobile-first economies – In Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, consumers skipped the desktop era and went straight to mobile. Digital wallets are now the default financial interface for hundreds of millions of people.

3. Embedded finance – Retailers, ride-hailing companies, and SaaS platforms are now payment providers in their own right. Financial services are no longer a separate vertical; they are woven into everyday products.

These dynamics have created enormous value pools. Payments have become the most highly valued corner of fintech, capturing a larger slice of overall market capitalisation than lending, wealthtech, or insurtech combined – a reflection of their role as both infrastructure and ecosystem enablers.

For example, digital wallet providers in Africa are not just competing with banks – they are becoming the banks. And VCs who identified this trend early have already seen multiples that traditional financial services could not deliver.

Cross-Border Payments: Cracking the $150 Billion Opportunity

One of the most promising frontiers is cross-border payments. The World Bank estimates that remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries reached $669 billion in 2023. Adding B2B trade payments, the market is worth well over $150 billion annually in fees alone.

Yet inefficiency persists. Cross-border transactions often involve multiple intermediaries, high FX spreads, and settlement delays. That friction is both a problem and an opportunity.

“Unipesa has built its model around solving precisely this issue. By creating a payments infrastructure that bridges African, Middle Eastern, and global financial systems, it enables businesses and individuals to move money seamlessly across borders. For agent networks, PSP companies, mid-sized exporters, freelancers, and digital entrepreneurs, this is not just convenience – it is access to markets that were previously unreachable,” mentioned Pavel Laptev, CPO at Unipesa.

For investors, the logic is straightforward: companies that remove barriers in global money movement tend to scale rapidly. They capture both volume growth (as more people transact across borders) and margin expansion (by undercutting legacy players with cheaper services). This dual dynamic makes cross-border payment innovators highly attractive assets in any fintech-focused portfolio.

Digital Wallets: The New Financial Operating System

If cross-border payments are the engine of global commerce, digital wallets are the control panel. They have become the default gateway for consumers to manage money, pay bills, receive salaries, and even access credit.

In markets like Kenya, Nigeria, and the Philippines, wallets are more than an accessory – they are the primary banking interface. This leapfrogging effect is profound. Instead of relying on legacy bank branches, millions of people are building their financial lives entirely around mobile-first solutions.

For Velex Investments, the opportunity lies in identifying and backing startups that transform digital wallets from single-use tools into full-scale financial ecosystems. What often begins as a simple payment app can quickly evolve into platforms offering credit scoring, insurance distribution, investment products, and merchant services.

A strong example is Zoyk, a Zambian licensed payment service provider recently backed by Velex.

“With Velex’s support, Zoyk has expanded into Malawi and Zimbabwe, evolving from a national player into a regional fintech ecosystem,” commented Clive Nabale, a co-founder and CEO of Zoyk Pay Group.

This trajectory illustrates exactly the kind of growth Velex looks for: startups that begin with payments and scale into multi-product, multi-market financial platforms with defensible long-term value.

Embedded Finance: Every Company Is a Fintech Now

Embedded finance may be the most disruptive payment trend of all. Put simply, it is the integration of financial services into non-financial platforms. When you book a ride and pay within the app, when your e-commerce platform offers “buy now, pay later,” or when a SaaS provider bundles invoicing and payments for SMEs – that’s embedded finance at work.

The TAM (total addressable market) here is staggering. According to KPMG, embedded finance revenues could exceed $230 billion globally by 2030.

Unipesa’s infrastructure is particularly well-suited for this space. By offering white-label payment solutions, it allows businesses outside traditional finance to integrate seamless payment capabilities without building their own backend. For merchants and platforms, this is a way to unlock new revenue streams. For Venture Capitalists, it signals recurring, high-margin revenue tied to ecosystems with massive user bases.

Velex sees embedded finance not as a niche, but as the default model of future commerce. By backing the right infrastructure providers early, they position portfolios to benefit as more industries, from retail to logistics, become payment-enabled.

Translating Innovation into Portfolio Growth

So how do these trends actually convert into investor returns? The path runs through three channels:

1. Revenue growth from transaction volume – As more commerce flows through digital channels, payment companies scale in line with GDP-plus growth. Investors gain exposure to secular expansion, not just cyclical cycles.

2. Network effects – The more users adopt a wallet or embedded finance solution, the harder it becomes for competitors to dislodge it. This leads to defensible market share and premium valuations.

3. Product expansion – Payment innovators rarely stop at payments. They evolve into super-apps or infrastructure hubs, layering on lending, wealth management, or insurance. Each additional product multiplies monetisation opportunities.

“This is where Velex’s expertise comes in. The company doesn’t just chase hype. It evaluates fintech models on scalability, regulatory resilience, and ecosystem positioning. By combining deep sector research with disciplined investment frameworks, Velex identifies high-potential fintech startups early, backing them before they scale, providing the support they need to grow, and helping them evolve into regional leaders and ecosystem enablers. Doing so, Velex ensures its portfolio is both profitable and transformative for the markets it serves,” commented Artur Mildov, CVO at Velex.

The Risk Lens: Regulation, Competition, and Sustainability

Of course, payment innovation is not without risk.

• Regulatory environments remain fluid. Some governments welcome fintech disruption; others impose restrictive licensing regimes. Venture Capitalists must assess regulatory durability before committing capital.

• Competition is intense. Payment is a crowded field, with global tech giants, banks, and startups all vying for share. Differentiation and defensible advantages are key.

• Sustainability matters. ESG is no longer optional in investment decision-making. Investors are increasingly scrutinising whether payment companies promote financial inclusion, transparency, and responsible practices.

Velex incorporates these filters into its process, ensuring that portfolio exposure aligns with long-term stability and global capital allocation trends.

What Comes Next

Payments will continue to evolve. We are entering an era of programmable money, tokenised assets, and AI-driven credit underwriting. But the common denominator remains the same: frictionless money movement creates value.

“Unipesa demonstrates how fintech infrastructure can transform regional economies. Velex demonstrates how disciplined investment strategies can translate that transformation into measurable returns. Together, they illustrate the dual story of fintech: innovation on the ground and portfolio growth in the markets,” says Vadim Mildov, Executive Chairman at Velex Group.

For Venture Capitalists willing to look beyond legacy banking and focus on payments as the growth engine of fintech, the opportunities are just beginning.

Conclusion

The future of fintech will be written through payments. Cross-border flows, digital wallets, and embedded finance are no longer side stories – they are the main stage. Platforms like Unipesa show how innovation can unlock new markets, while investment firms like Velex prove that with the right lens, investors can capture sustainable growth from these shifts. Velex Investments is an enabler and contributor to regional ecosystems’ growth by providing smart investments and a wide range of support for business growth.

Payments have evolved from background infrastructure into one of the most dynamic arenas in global finance. For investors, the message is clear: the future is being built in the flow of money, and those who understand it will shape the portfolios of tomorrow.