When Joe Kinvi joined Touchtech Payments as head of finance in 2017, the Irish startup didn’t have the funds on hand to fully cover his salary. To bridge the gap, Kinvi negotiated compensation in company equity. That decision soon paid off; a mere eighteen months later, Touchtech was acquired by Stripe, turning Kinvi’s equity into shares valuable enough for him to step away comfortably, bootstrap a side project, and eventually launch his own startup.
Today, that startup—named Borderless—is dedicated to helping Africans in the diaspora pool their funds to invest directly in startup companies and real estate in their home countries. Since its beta release last year, the platform, headquartered in the UK, has already facilitated transactions totaling over $500,000.
According to Kinvi, while the African diaspora sends substantial amounts back home each year in the form of remittances, the vast majority of those funds are consumed by immediate family needs rather than invested in productive and growth-promoting assets. “Billions flow back, but little goes into ventures or long-term real estate investment,” Kinvi noted. “Our goal is to match the right investing groups with high-quality opportunities, making the entire process easier and safer.”
The idea behind Borderless emerged from a personal challenge Kinvi and his friends faced back in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was starting to reshape economies globally. Looking to support promising African startups, Kinvi and his friends formed an investment group called Hoaq. They soon encountered substantial difficulties simply opening an operational bank account, with repeated red flags from financial institutions causing delays and accounts frozen without warning. Currency mismatches, stringent regulatory requirements, and complex accreditation rules further complicated their investment activities, making what should have been straightforward transactions into a legal maze.
To make things workable, they pooled resources to pay a lawyer to navigate the complicated regulatory landscape. Soon after, they built in-house software to automate part of this cumbersome process—a concept and experience that later formed the backbone of Borderless. Hoaq, as an investment entity, has already invested successfully in African companies including LemFi, Bamboo, and food delivery firm Chowdeck.
Kinvi, who had transitioned into a growth and product role at Stripe and spent time with Paystack—another Stripe subsidiary focusing on financial partnerships across Africa—eventually returned to the original problem of collective investing. He transformed his earlier internal solution into a full-fledged digital platform designed from end-to-end to onboard investors, facilitate cross-border payment processing, and securely disburse investment capital.
Though Borderless currently maintains a waitlist featuring over 100 active communities eager to join the service, the collectives already on the platform have invested in more than ten startups and two real estate projects in Kenya. Investment minimums on the platform start at $1,000 for startups and $5,000 for real estate assets.
Operating under UK financial regulations, Borderless is able to legally market and manage these investments within the diaspora community. For now, the platform prioritizes two key asset classes—startup equity and real estate—but Kinvi noted that expansion into other sectors, notably film and diaspora bonds, remains a possibility in the foreseeable future.
Trust, Kinvi emphasized, is at the heart of Borderless’s business model. One primary obstacle diaspora investors often encounter is the fear of losing their capital when investing informally through relatives or acquaintances. He recounted one example where someone sent €200,000 home to build a house–a house that was never constructed. To prevent such incidents on its platform, Borderless employs strict controls, transferring funds directly to vetted, credible entities, legal escrow accounts, or reputable third-party providers. Collective managers never physically handle investor funds.
Revenue for Borderless comes through transaction fees, foreign exchange spreads, and portions of community membership dues. Kinvi anticipates expanding revenue streams over time, potentially including fees on additional financial products such as remittances and asset management services.
More broadly, Kinvi believes the larger potential lies in mobilizing billions in idle diaspora savings each year—capital that currently sits largely unused. According to Kinvi, while firms like Zepz, Taptap Send, NALA, and LemFi dominate remittance flows, few have focused seriously on long-term investment vehicles specifically aimed at Africans abroad. He envisions Borderless filling this crucial gap.
This vision has resonated among the company’s backers, which include DFS Lab, Paystack CTO Ezra Olubi, high-profile Nigerian angel investor Olumide Soyombo, and executives from top companies like Stripe and Google. Interestingly, many of these investors also actively participate as users on the platform themselves. Borderless recently completed a $500,000 seed round with these supportive investors.
While optimistic about the prospects ahead, Kinvi acknowledges challenges in scaling the model broadly. Borderless currently relies heavily on existing personal networks and trusted collective leaders for vetting, but growing beyond this initial community will require substantial investment in robust identity verification, regulatory compliance tooling, and fraud detection mechanisms—a necessary foundation to prevent misuse and sustain trust.
For Kinvi, Borderless isn’t merely about facilitating profitable investments for the diaspora—it’s deeply tied to personal identity and the broader ambition of returning home economically empowered. “The diaspora eventually wants to go home,” said Kinvi. “Before they can comfortably do that, we need to offer them pathways to safely and effectively invest in opportunities at scale. That’s exactly what we’re aiming to build.”
