SquareFi is a payment operations platform that provides unified financial infrastructure for fintechs and global enterprises, combining bank accounts, virtual cards, and stablecoin-based cross-border payments into a single API-driven solution. Pulse 2.0 interviewed SquareFi co-founder and CEO Denis Spasibo to learn more.
Denis Spasibo’s Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Spasibo said:
“I’ve spent much of my career at the intersection of technology and finance. Before SquareFi, I worked on tokenization, helping businesses convert real-world assets like real estate into digital tokens. The work was technically sophisticated and attracted real institutional interest, but I soon realized there was a much deeper structural challenge in payments infrastructure, so I shifted my focus entirely to fintech and payments.”
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Spasibo shared:
“It came precisely from a gap we kept running into when my co-founder, Anton, and I were building tokenization solutions for real estate. Things were looking good on paper, but the clients we were working with weren’t asking us about tokenization. They wanted to know: how do we legally convert crypto to fiat? Can we get cards that actually work with our crypto? We started getting these questions, client after client, and realized we’d been solving the wrong problem.”
“Clients were looking for a way to move their money legally and more easily, but the infrastructure simply didn’t exist in a form that their businesses could actually use. Everything was fragmented, slow, or operating in grey areas.”
“So within three months, we shifted direction, did deep research, and built our first product, which was a white-label crypto wallet with cards for a specific client. That was the first step, and since then we’ve been building the infrastructure that makes crypto and fiat work together as one system, not two competing ones.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Spasibo reflected:
“Honestly, it’s all the moments when a client tells you they can finally do something they couldn’t do before. Not in a product feedback way, but in the sense that we’ve positively impacted their businesses. What also really stood out was how directly consolidating our infrastructure showed up in the numbers with a few of our early clients. Our first $100 million in processed payments came in 380 days, and the second $100 million followed in just 80. Seeing that acceleration was the clearest confirmation that what we were building actually mattered.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Spasibo explained:
“At its core, SquareFi is financial infrastructure. We are the foundation that fintechs and global platforms build on top of. What that means in practice is that we give them one unified system for accounts, cards, crypto wallets, and fiat/crypto conversion. Instead of stitching together separate providers for banking, card issuing, crypto, and compliance, everything runs through a single platform and a single API.”
“We connect to all the major payment rails: SWIFT, SEPA, ACH, WIRE, local rails. We support 25+ currencies and operate across 150+ countries. Stablecoins serve as our internal settlement layer, which means money moves faster and at lower cost without sacrificing compliance. Businesses can integrate with us in different ways: direct API, white-label, or a fully branded end-to-end solution. The infrastructure is the same either way; it’s just a question of how they want to present it.”
“Separately, we also run Mosta, which is a modern account for global payments, built for businesses and individuals operating internationally. It’s our customer-facing banking platform built entirely on SquareFi’s infrastructure. It’s not necessarily for clients who need to launch their own financial product or specific solution, but for those who need the ability to move their money across 150+ countries, with support for 25+ currencies from the start.”
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently, and how did you overcome those challenges? Spasibo acknowledged:
“When you’re operating between traditional banking and crypto, both sides tend to look at each other with some suspicion. Banks see crypto and think risk. Crypto-native clients see banking requirements and think of bureaucracy. Every bank integration meant explaining to compliance teams what stablecoins actually are, and every new crypto-native client needed to understand that KYC isn’t the enemy.”
“What is also crucial is that you can’t rely on a single banking partner. To keep the infrastructure solid, you need to maintain relationships with multiple banks simultaneously, which means going through onboarding and compliance processes again and again. It’s time-consuming, but it’s the only way to ensure you always have a choice. The only way to understand any of this was to build, hit real walls, and work through them one by one.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Spasibo noted:
“Product-wise, when we first launched, we were essentially proving that the concept worked, so it was one product, one client, improving as we went. The infrastructure was functional but quite narrow. What’s changed is the depth and breadth of what we’ve built. Multi-rail settlement logic, cross-jurisdictional compliance, stablecoin-native settlement that connects to traditional banking.”
“In terms of our own company, we also made a decision early on to embed AI across the entire operation. Development workflows, support, CRM, and how we process information. That’s allowed us to move significantly faster than a traditionally structured team our size would be able to. We can test, iterate, and deploy at a pace that would be impossible otherwise.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Spasibo cited:
“A few stand out. Of course, the initial pivot itself, which I believe was a truly important moment for us as a company. Realizing that tokenization wasn’t the answer and having the conviction to change direction completely within three months. That was a quick call, but definitely the right one.”
“I’m also proud of our volume growth with early clients. We recently hit $250 million in cumulative transaction volume within a year and during stealth. It truly shows that the demand was sitting there waiting.”
Customer Success Stories
Can you share any specific customer success stories? Spasibo highlighted:
“What we see consistently are fintechs and global platforms that have been assembling workarounds coming to us and finally consolidating their stack. There’s no longer one provider for banking, another for crypto, and another for compliance. The time they were spending on integrations and reconciliation just disappears. That means going from months of infrastructure work to just weeks of deployment for new payment products.”
“Separately, we’ve also decided to launch Mosta, a modern account for global payments, built for businesses and individuals operating internationally. It’s our customer-facing banking platform built entirely on SquareFi’s infrastructure, serving businesses in sectors where traditional banking genuinely struggles: global media buyers, payroll companies with international operations, and gaming companies, for example. They need a compliant, fast, and unified infrastructure to operate efficiently, and they’ve dramatically improved in speed, cost, and control.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Spasibo affirmed:
“Many offer solutions to parts of the problem. A strong card product here, a solid on-ramp there, decent API coverage somewhere else. But businesses still end up stitching pieces together. SquareFi is one unified system: accounts, cards, wallets, on/off-ramp, settlement, all through a single API.”
“We’re also genuinely global. We saw how early on a lot of the emerging infrastructure was built around US or European markets and then extended outward (or didn’t). We built global-first from the start, and are able to support 150+ countries and 25+ currencies. Flexibility matters too. Clients can come to us as a direct API integration, as white-label infrastructure, or as a fully branded end-to-end solution.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Spasibo emphasized:
“Our mission is to build the new financial infrastructure that businesses can actually rely on, because the modern finance stack is fundamentally broken for the world we live in.”
“As a company, one of our most interesting ambitions is that we’re 25 people aiming to build a unicorn without exceeding 50. That means continuing to use AI and automation to amplify what each person can do, rather than scaling headcount linearly with our growth. It’s a different way of building a company, and I think it’ll become the norm; we’re just doing it earlier.”
“As for our short- to mid-term goals, they revolve around preparing for our next fundraising round and launching a set of new products in the coming months that will help us achieve an even deeper rail coverage and expanded currency support.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics you would like to discuss? Spasibo concluded:
“One thing I think about a lot and generally don’t get asked about often enough is why financial infrastructure is still so complex. And it’s interesting because we’re reaching a point where complexity is not necessary. If you think about it, every layer of complexity has historically been someone’s business model. Every intermediary, every three-day delay, every hidden fee, all this system was working as designed simply because it benefited the people who built it.”
“What’s different now is that the tools to dismantle that complexity actually exist. Stablecoins remove intermediaries. Programmable money removes ‘three business days.’ That’s why I’m a firm believer that what we’re building at SquareFi has a larger impact; it’s about the replacement of a financial infrastructure that was never designed for the way the world actually works today.”
