From Friction to Flow — MANSA’s Mission to Redefine Global Payments

When Mouloukou Sanoh describes his journey, from Guinea to Greater China to Europe, it’s clear that his global experience directly shaped MANSA’s mission. Having personally felt the friction of sending money across borders, he co-founded MANSA to remove it

Today, as CEO, Sanoh leads the company in building a stablecoin-based liquidity and settlement layer that enables real-time, low-cost transfers across emerging-market corridors. Backed by $10 million in funding and now part of Abu Dhabi’s Hub71 ecosystem, MANSA is positioning itself as the backbone for the “internet of money,” bridging traditional finance with blockchain-powered efficiency.

Could you briefly introduce yourself and your company? What is your background, and what does MANSA do?

I’m Mouloukou Sanoh, Co-Founder and CEO of MANSA. My path runs through venture capital and private equity before focusing full-time on solving bottlenecks in cross-border money movement. My own story is global: Guinean heritage, raised in Greater China, Dutch national. I’ve felt the friction and cost of sending money across borders first-hand.

MANSA exists to remove that friction. We provide a stablecoin-based liquidity and settlement layer so payment companies can move funds in real time and at lower cost, with particular focus on emerging-market corridors. The mission is simple: build the settlement layer for the internet of money and expand access where it’s most needed.

You are expressing strong support for stablecoins. How does your involvement with stablecoins transform payments?

We use stablecoins as a just-in-time settlement and liquidity rail for our clients, not as a speculative product. Instead of pre-funding multiple bank accounts and waiting days for reconciliation, a payment company can source regulated USD liquidity on-chain, move it 24/7/365, and have us deliver local currency at the edge of the corridor. That shortens the transaction chain, reduces idle cash and FX exposure windows, and gives operators a single, auditable trail for settlement and compliance. These benefits matter most in the high-friction corridors we serve across Africa, LATAM, and Southeast Asia.

The context for this approach is clear: policymakers are pushing to make cross-border payments cheaper, faster, and more transparent by 2027, yet remittance costs in many corridors still reach up to 10%, a real burden for families and small businesses. Stablecoin settlement helps on all three fronts: it enables round-the-clock movement, narrows fees tied to legacy chains, and provides on-chain records that simplify operations and oversight

Our role at MANSA is to abstract the complexity, so fintechs can plug into a settlement layer that behaves like modern internet infrastructure while staying within familiar regulatory guardrails.

How does MANSA benefit individuals and businesses? What unique challenges do you address for each group?

We tackle liquidity constraints for businesses so that individuals feel the difference downstream. For remittance firms, B2B payment platforms, virtual card processors, and brokerages, MANSA reduces pre-funding needs, improves capital efficiency, and offers competitive FX with instant settlement.

For people on the other end, like migrant workers sending money home, small exporters paying suppliers, the impact is practical: faster transfers, more predictable arrival times, and fewer hidden costs. Global remittance costs are falling but still meaningful in many corridors, so shaving time and basis points matters to household budgets and to small businesses’ cash flow.

As MANSA focuses on emerging markets, what’s your expansion strategy and target regions? How will joining the latest cohort of Hub71 help expand your presence in the UAE?

We build where the pain is greatest: high-impact corridors across Africa, LATAM, and Southeast Asia. The UAE is central to that strategy. It’s one of the world’s major remittance hubs linking the Middle East to Africa and Asia, so establishing a strong presence here connects liquidity to the places that need it most

Joining Hub71 accelerates this plan. Abu Dhabi offers a supportive regulatory environment, access to capital, and a fintech ecosystem that helps us partner and scale responsibly from a regional launchpad.

What role do you think MANSA will play in shaping the future of payments in the UAE?

The UAE sees itself as a global center for fintech and digital assets. Our role is the settlement layer: helping remittance providers and processors make payouts faster and cheaper into priority corridors, and making inbound liquidity easier to manage. If we remove pre-funding and reconciliation drags, operators can pass savings to customers and expand with less risk.

What trends do you see in cross-border payments, especially around blockchain and stablecoins? How is MANSA positioning itself to leverage these trends for future growth?

There are three shifts that stand out. First, stablecoins are moving from trading to settlement because transfers are near-instant and auditable. Second, regulatory clarity is improving in hubs like Singapore and Abu Dhabi, giving institutions more confidence to adopt. Third, fintechs want liquidity at scale without idle cash.

MANSA is built for that intersection. We make stablecoin settlement usable at an institutional scale by combining liquidity, FX, and compliance guardrails that operators expect, so they can serve customers without changing their day-to-day workflows.

How do you see the regulatory landscape for stablecoins and digital assets evolving in the coming years? How is MANSA preparing to adapt in both emerging and mature markets?

We expect continued standardization around reserves, redemption, and disclosures, plus clearer licensing for fiat-referenced tokens in the UAE and single-currency stablecoins in Singapore. In many emerging markets, adoption will also be pushed by the practical need for cheaper, faster settlement. Our approach is to build in regulated hubs, keep our risk stack enterprise-grade, and adapt quickly as frameworks mature. This way, clients can use stablecoin rails within familiar regulatory environments.

Coming from fintech, how has MANSA bridged traditional finance and DeFi so far? What positive trends do you see in this space?

We give mainstream fintechs access to stablecoin liquidity without touching DeFi protocols directly, abstracting complexity while keeping compliance and risk front and center. That’s already live with clients across Africa, LATAM, and Southeast Asia. The broader trend is convergence: regulated institutions are more open to blockchain-based settlement when the safeguards are clear. Our job is to keep simplifying the interface so operators get the benefits of speed and capital efficiency without overhauling their stack.

After raising $10M and joining Hub71, what progress or achievements has this support enabled so far?

We raised $10 million ($3 million in equity led by Tether and $7 million in liquidity financing) to strengthen the product, expand across LATAM and Southeast Asia, and deepen compliance and risk.

Since then, MANSA has processed about $143 million in payments and supported about $281 million in on-chain volume. Clients report up to 30% revenue growth and around 40% transaction growth post-integration. Hub71 is helping us consolidate our UAE footprint, align with regulators, and build partnerships that turn pilots into production.

How is your participation in Hub71 helping drive innovation? What are your plans going forward?

Hub71 gives us access to a unique mix of regulatory engagement, global capital, and a network of forward-looking partners. Looking ahead, our plan is to expand across key remittance and trade corridors linking the Middle East to Africa and Asia, while continuing to build toward our long-term vision: making MANSA the settlement layer for the internet of money.