Luno has acquired Kenyan cross-border payments company GTXN, bringing licensed collection and payout infrastructure into the cryptocurrency platform as it expands further into business payments across emerging markets.

The deal brings together two fintech businesses built by founders with experience tackling financial infrastructure in emerging markets. Luno was co-founded by Marcus Swanepoel and Timothy Stranex, with Swanepoel serving as chief executive, while GTXN was co-founded by Dan Kleinbaum, who will remain chief executive of the business following the acquisition.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

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, according to Luno.

The acquisition pushes Luno beyond its traditional role as a cryptocurrency platform and deeper into the infrastructure used to move money between markets.

Most international payments still rely on correspondent banking, in which banks use relationships with intermediary institutions to move money between countries.

That structure can add 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.

The problem is particularly pronounced in emerging markets, where local banks may not have direct relationships with institutions in destination markets. Payments can therefore pass through several intermediaries before reaching the recipient.

Foreign-exchange spreads can add another cost that is not always visible in the headline transaction fee.

For businesses making frequent international payments, those layers can make moving money between developed and emerging markets slower and more expensive than domestic transfers.

GTXN gives Luno licensed collection and payout infrastructure inside its existing market footprint.

Instead of a business stitching together separate providers for collection, foreign exchange, settlement and payout, the combined operation is designed to provide those services through one provider.

That gives Luno greater control over the payment flow and allows transactions to be settled against its own liquidity.

GTXN is a Kenyan cross-border payments company and licensed fund manager. Its infrastructure is being incorporated into Luno’s broader payments operation, with Kleinbaum continuing to lead the business.

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, formerly MFS Africa, in 2020.

Kleinbaum later built GTXN around foreign exchange and cross-border treasury services for corporates and institutions in East Africa. He brings more than a decade of experience building payments infrastructure in emerging markets to the Luno business.

His experience is central to what Luno is buying. Cross-border payments in emerging markets require more than a digital interface; providers need local licensing, payment connections, foreign-exchange capability and liquidity in each market they serve.

Luno already has the regulatory footprint and liquidity. GTXN adds another layer of the infrastructure required to connect those markets.

Swanepoel and Stranex founded Luno in 2013, initially building a cryptocurrency platform focused on making digital assets accessible in emerging and frontier markets. Swanepoel remains the company’s chief executive.

The GTXN acquisition marks another step in the company’s expansion beyond retail cryptocurrency trading and toward institutional settlement and financial infrastructure.

For Luno, the value of the deal is therefore not simply the addition of another payment product. It is the ability to control more of the infrastructure through which money moves between markets where correspondent banking remains fragmented.

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 are intended to provide greater oversight of international financial flows as crypto assets become increasingly integrated with conventional financial services.

For Luno and other regulated crypto-asset service providers, the final framework will help determine how digital assets, foreign exchange and cross-border payments can interact within the regulated financial system.

Luno has said it supports a framework that preserves access to regulated innovation and allows South African businesses to use cross-border financial infrastructure being developed in other markets.

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.

Whether that ultimately produces materially lower costs and faster settlement will depend on the corridors Luno can connect, the liquidity available in those markets and the regulatory permissions governing each transaction.

With GTXN, Luno is adding owned cross-border payment infrastructure to a business that began as a cryptocurrency exchange, giving the company a larger role in the movement of money between emerging and developed markets.