By Alexandros Bottenbruch

We’re pleased to share that PayPal Ventures recently co-led EFEX’s $8M seed round, a fintech company transforming how small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) manage cross-border payments and treasury across the fast-growing U.S.–Mexico corridor.

Why We Believe EFEX Stands Out 

SMBs moving money across borders continue to rely on fragmented banking relationships, opaque FX pricing, and manual workflows that slow operations and erode margins. At the same time, the U.S.–Mexico corridor alone represents roughly $1 trillion in annual SMB trade, growing more than 15% per year, with approximately 137,000 active businesses.

EFEX is building a purpose-built cash management and payments platform for this segment, combining multi-currency accounts, FX, treasury tools, and credit into a single system designed around how SMBs actually operate.

A New Kind of SMB Treasury Platform 

Founded in 2022 and headquartered between Palo Alto and Mexico City, EFEX offers SMBs multi-currency business accounts, same-day U.S.–Mexico settlement, and global payouts to more than 140 countries. On top of the underlying rails, EFEX layers transparent FX execution, hedging tools such as forwards and programmable orders, and treasury capabilities including partner-provided working-capital credit — all delivered through a modern, digital interface.

An AI copilot automates a large share of routine work, helping streamline onboarding, payments, customer support, and cross-sell, enabling brokers and SMBs to operate with the speed and visibility they expect from modern infrastructure.

An AI-Powered Broker Flywheel 

One of EFEX’s most differentiated strengths is its broker-led, go-to-market model. FX brokers remain the trusted interface for many SMBs in cross-border trade, and EFEX enhances – rather than disintermediates – their role. By equipping brokers with an AI-powered platform, EEFEX enables them to serve several times more customers while delivering enterprise-grade services.

Broker-sourced SMBs tend to be larger, higher-quality clients with strong retention. The EFEX model also shortens sales and onboarding cycles by leveraging long-standing broker relationships. As more brokers onboard and migrate their portfolios, EFEX benefits from a compounding network effect that strengthens distribution and deepens its position in the corridor.

A Large, Underserved Market 

SMBs account for approximately 44% of global B2B cross-border flows, yet they remain structurally underserved by traditional banks and many fintechs, particularly for more sophisticated needs such as treasury, hedging, and credit. Within the U.S.–Mexico corridor alone, EFEX’s blended revenue model across payments, FX, treasury, and embedded credit represents an estimated $6 to $7 billion annual revenue opportunity.

While digital penetration of B2B trade corridors remains relatively low, it is expected to increase significantly in the coming years, creating a long runway for specialized platforms that combine regulatory depth, modern infrastructure, and localized distribution.

Partnering for the Next Phase 

We co-led EFEX’s Series Seed round alongside Floodgate, joining a strong group of early backers. Our partnership will support EFEX as it continues to scale its broker-led distribution, deepen its treasury and credit offering, and expand its regulatory and product footprint across the U.S.–Mexico corridor and beyond.

We are excited to work with founders Dimitri Zaninovich and Santiago Bustamante and the entire EFEX team as they build what we believe can become category-defining infrastructure for SMB cross-border payments and treasury in Latin America – and, over time, across other major global trade corridors.

Set up a demo to see how you can optimize international money transfers: https://efexpay.com/en