Stripe’s Former Growth Lead Helps African Diaspora Invest in Startups, Real Estate

TL;DR

• Joe Kinvi, former Stripe and Paystack leader, founded Borderless, a UK-based platform enabling diaspora communities to invest in African startups and real estate.
  
• The platform, born out of grassroots investing club Hoaq, helps users navigate regulatory barriers and cross-border complexities with digitized onboarding and escrow protection.
  
• Borderless has already processed $500,000+ in transactions, backing over 10 startups and 2 real estate projects in Kenya.
  
• By combining regulatory cover, collective investing infrastructure, and trust-focused capital flows, Borderless aims to unlock the $30 billion in dormant migrant savings globally.
  
• Investors like DFS Lab, Stripe executives, Paystack CTO, and Google veterans are not only backers — they’re also users.
  

From Salary Sacrifice to Startup Vision

Joe Kinvi’s journey began in 2017 at Touchtech Payments, where he accepted equity in lieu of full salary. When Stripe acquired Touchtech 18 months later, that bet paid off. His newly acquired Stripe shares gave him the runway to bootstrap Borderless, a startup redefining diaspora investment into productive African assets.

But before Borderless, there was Hoaq — a grassroots investment club Kinvi formed with friends during the pandemic. The group began pooling money into African startups, but their first task — opening a bank account — became a bureaucratic nightmare. Accounts were frozen, compliance was unclear, and cross-border investing laws created chaos.

Hoaq’s DIY solution evolved into automated workflows and light legal infrastructure, the foundation for what is now Borderless.

Solving the Diaspora Investing Dilemma

Every year, the African diaspora sends billions in remittances, but very little enters productive investments. Borderless addresses that gap by offering:

• Digital onboarding
  
• Cross-border payment processing
  
• Escrow-backed capital deployment
  
• Regulatory-compliant opportunity listings
  

Kinvi summarizes the core problem bluntly: “Too many diaspora investors have lost money through informal channels.” In one example, a contact reportedly sent €200,000 to build a house — which never materialized.

With Borderless, funds are routed directly to verified entities (e.g., lawyers, sellers, escrow), bypassing middlemen and family networks.

The Data

A Platform Built on Trust and Regulation

At its core, Borderless is about institutionalizing informal investing. The platform supports secure disbursement, operates under UK regulatory protection, and integrates legal/compliance checks across the transaction cycle.

Users can:

• Onboard across geographies
  
• Deploy capital across asset classes
  
• Avoid regulatory headaches that plague informal diaspora finance
  

The company earns revenue via FX spreads, transaction fees, and membership dues. Future revenue streams may include remittance products and asset management services.

Expanding Horizons: Beyond Startups and Property

Today, Borderless focuses on two asset classes: startups and real estate. However, Kinvi hints at new verticals including:

• Diaspora bonds
  
• Film financing
  
• Infrastructure and agriculture pools
  

With $30 billion in unused diaspora savings and few institutional alternatives, Borderless is positioning itself as the infrastructure layer for collective investing across the African diaspora.

The People Behind the Capital

What makes Borderless unique is that its investors are also its customers. Among its early backers:

• DFS Lab – a VC known for supporting digital financial inclusion in Africa
  
• Ezra Olubi – Co-founder & CTO of Paystack
  
• Olumide Soyombo – prominent angel investor
  
• Senior executives from Stripe and Google
  

Their capital doesn’t just fund operations — it validates the mission: building a safe, scalable path for Africans abroad to invest in the future of home.

The Road Ahead: Scaling With Integrity

Scaling Borderless comes with clear challenges:

• Fraud prevention as onboarding grows
  
• Identity verification across multiple jurisdictions
  
• Legal harmonization as asset classes and countries increase
  

For now, much of the platform’s reliability stems from pre-vetted collective heads and direct relationships. To grow sustainably, Borderless will need to embed deep infrastructure for KYC, compliance, and dispute resolution.

Still, Kinvi remains focused on the long game: “Most Africans in the diaspora want to go back home someday. To do that, they need to invest confidently and at scale. That’s what we’re building.”