CIO Times magazine 
                     Cover 
Story
Unipesa
Building Futures by Redeining 
Access to Opportunity Through 
Trusted Financial Solutions
Pavel Laptev
Chief Product Oficer 
nnovation in the Middle East has Unipesa is firm about the true as a strategic discipline rather than a 
Ibecome an engine driving regional competitive frontier existing within the matter of localization. The organization transformation. Organizations are infrastructure powering financial emphasizes that building for these 
reimagining how technology can ecosystems. As connectivity deepens markets requires navigating regulatory 
secure financial systems. It also across markets, infrastructure is a diversity, fragmented payment 
includes sophisticated infrastructure decisive factor shaping fintech's next ecosystems, and distinct customer 
and accelerates digital adoption at phase. The first wave was defined by behaviors. In such environments, there 
scale. The emphasis is on integrating interfaces; the current wave is is no “average user.” A merchant in 
resilience and trust into each layer of determined by the stack. When banks, Lusaka, an agent in Kinshasa, and a 
the digital economy. Unipesa does this retailers, and telecoms embed financial bank in Nairobi each operate under 
with innovation and regulatory rigor, services, success hinges on who can unique regulators, rails, and practices. 
which results in enterprises shaping a launch, scale, and remain compliant This reality shaped its philosophy: 
future defined by clarity and with speed and precision. deliver a configurable platform instead 
predictability. The team reflects a of a finished product. The foundation 
commitment to clarity and In Africa, where mobile money, cards, remains universal, while local 
predictability in how technology transfers, and agent networks coexist, requirements are absorbed through a 
supports economic growth. fragmentation becomes a strategic flexible layer above. Three lessons 
challenge. The organization evolves define this approach. 
Payment Architecture this complexity into an advantage by 
delivering one integration, one • Reliability outweighs features: in 
It is a Dubai-headquartered financial compliance framework, and one markets where trust is scarce, a 
platform-as-a-service provider operational layer. Partnering across product that never fails is the 
operating across the Middle East and 20+ countries and every digital-finance innovation. 
Africa. It empowers banks, fintechs, vertical, it builds infrastructure that • Design must accommodate 
payment companies, and agent renders financial operations offline, low-bandwidth, 
networks to scale secure digital interoperable, borderless, and cash-adjacent realities rather than 
financial services without heavy frictionless for enterprises seeking ideal conditions. 
in-house development. Processing over resilience and scale. • Regulation is treated as a design 
100 million transactions monthly, input, not an obstacle; solutions 
Unipesa delivers resilience, Configurable Foundations built with compliance at the core Empowered Participation market trader like a first-class African regions provides it with a 
compliance, and speed across diverse scale faster than those that bolt it economic citizen.” privileged vantage point. 
markets. Its dual regional presence Unipesa visualizes product on later. Unipesa positions financial inclusion as 
positions it as a trusted bridge for development for emerging economies a grade of empowerment rather than Success is measured not by accounts The team states, “Every country 
institutions seeking scalable payment mere access. The organization opened but by livelihoods transformed. develops its own unique scenarios, yet 
infrastructure aligned with global underscores that access alone does not Its philosophy builds ecosystems certain patterns repeat from market to 
standards and regional regulatory guarantee meaningful participation in where every transaction generates market.”
frameworks. the digital economy. The first chapter usable financial identity, agent 
showed that mobile money placed networks double as distribution This perspective distinguishes lasting 
Products & Services wallets in hundreds of millions of channels for credit and insurance, and innovation from momentum-driven 
pockets, but a wallet limited to sending small businesses gain the same calibre activity. Its blueprint builds products 
• Multi-channel Payment Gateway and receiving funds remains a tool. The of financial tooling as large enterprises. and features that strengthen the 
• POS Agent Network next chapter is defined by what access platform rather than simply enlarge it. 
• Digital Wallets unlocks: credit histories derived from Ideal Innovation Discipline At the same time, the organization 
• Lending Solutions transaction data, savings and insurance acknowledges that momentum cannot 
• Communication Platform embedded at the point of commerce, Unipesa defines innovation not as be ignored; baseline features must be 
• Compliance & Security and merchants advancing from speed of feature release but as delivered, as staying current is the 
accepting payments to financing discipline in creating enduring value. It price of relevance.    
Infrastructure Advantage inventory. emphasizes that enduring products 
emerge from strategic restraint rather 
Fintech discourse often highlights The team shares, “Empowerment than unchecked expansion. Working 
consumer-facing innovation. Still, happens when infrastructure treats a directly with partners across diverse 
In the future, AI will accelerate digital for the first time, that languages, KYC flows, and business 
solution development, rendering confidence is fragile. A single logic are treated as configuration, not 
interfaces and automation nearly cost- unexplained failure can drive a code.
free. The team smartly highlights a customer back to cash for years.
critical limitation: AI requires data to Equally important is the human 
reason and infrastructure to operate, It uplifts trust into a design discipline. dimension. 
neither of which it can build Transparency is embedded by default, 
independently. This reality positions reliability is treated as the headline The team says, “We don't operate as a 
companies that own the rails and the feature, and security operates invisibly solo player, and we don't sell solutions 
data layer as the new center of gravity to protect without burdening honest on a "sell and forget' basis — our 
in fintech. In the AI decade, users. Fraud prevention that penalizes model is building businesses together 
infrastructure ceases to be plumbing; it all participants is not protection; it is a with partners.”
becomes the moat, the decisive trust tax. For the team, enterprises 
advantage that secures resilience and embedding this philosophy will find Local founders and operational teams 
scale.  trust compounds like capital, and it is anchor its presence across more than 
the one advantage competitors cannot 20 markets, absorbing realities on the 
Trust by Design replicate quickly. ground and feeding knowledge back 
into the platform. Their insights shape 
Trust is the cornerstone of financial Collaborative Growth configuration while preserving the 
services, emphasizing that technology integrity of the core, ensuring 
may enable transactions but only trust Growth is perceived as a source of resilience without fragmentation.
sustains them. The organization complexity, noting that expansion into 
stresses that compliance is the baseline, new markets demands balance between The Dual Perspective
not the essence of trust. A license may consistency and local adaptation. The 
satisfy regulators, yet it does not organization deploys a principle of one Unipesa's Chief Product Officer, Pavel 
reassure customers. Confidence is built platform, never forks. Security, the Laptev's career that has exposed him to 
within the product itself, transaction by core ledger, and engineering standards several business components. From 
transaction, and in markets where remain identical everywhere, while business systems analysis to leading 
individuals are moving from cash to payment channels, currencies, product strategy across a multi-country 
fintech ecosystem. Entering the 
product leadership realm has taught 
Ecosystem Advantage The team puts it this way, “A provider AI Moat him about the IT and payments sector 
with infrastructure on the ground in depth. As a lead analyst at a cross-
The industry's trajectory is a decisive across multiple markets, operating Artificial intelligence is a structural country e-wallet and online payment 
shift from standalone financial fully within each regulator's transformation of financial service for e-commerce, he has 
products to interconnected ecosystems framework, delivers far more stable infrastructure rather than a mere calculated the business cases and 
where payments, wallets, services to enterprise clients — and productivity tool. The organization architecture of fintech processing from 
communications, identity, and lending can address a much wider spectrum of emphasizes that automation is the least the inside. 
converge. The organization asserts that their needs, which in digital finance compelling aspect of AI. The deeper He spearheaded the back-office team, 
a product solves a task, but an are never uniform.” impact lies in collapsing the cost of while each business automation 
ecosystem compounds value. When The relationship itself evolves: no customer understanding. Credit scoring process also passed through his hands. 
these components share one platform, longer vendor and client, but derived from transaction behavior Be it CRM for support and sales, or 
each strengthens the other. Transaction co-builders of foundational systems. instead of bureaus, fraud detection that finance and reporting for reconciliation 
data enhances credit decisions, identity Shared roadmaps and revenue models adapts to local patterns, and and top management. 
mitigates fraud, and messaging ensure that the organization's success is compliance scaled across diverse 
transforms every financial event into a inseparable from the growth of its regulatory regimes. He adds, “As product manager of the 
customer engagement. partners.  payment platform in the same 
Unipesa says, “In emerging markets, organization, I learned the sheer 
This dynamic rewards the provider that that changes who can be served at all: variety of payment instruments and 
builds genuine infrastructure rather a small merchant becomes as methods — at global scale and under 
than single-point solutions. economical to serve as a corporation.”   serious load. And my pre-IT career 
shaped me too — regional sales skills I deliberately trained, paired Challenges are embraced as catalysts 
manager at Wrigley and Panasonic, with a principle I live by: think slowly, rather than obstacles. Every team 
then commercial director at a local act quickly.”  member makes a visible impact, both 
telecom provider — that's where I on their own “mini-product” and on the 
learned how to present a B2B product Product Culture company's trajectory. In this way, it 
in its best light. A great journey, cultivates a product culture that fosters 
honestly — thank you for the The organizational growth shifts the curiosity, accountability, and long-term 
question.”   role of product leadership from thinking while sustaining disciplined 
shaping solutions to shaping people. execution across diverse economies.
Through the years, his outlook on The team highlights that delegation 
product leadership has distilled in two becomes unavoidable, guided by a Strategic Convergence
things that need to get right: principle of trusting teams and 
enabling their development. Unipesa The organization projects that the 
I.  Nurturing a two-way trust process.  builds its culture on respect and defining transformation in financial 
ii. Imbibing the regimen of deep diving engagement. It believes that when services over the next decade will be 
into customer journeys, markets, individuals enjoy their work in this structural convergence rather than 
products, technologies, architecture, case, opening laptops in a remote-first incremental trends. The organization 
competitors, even the person you're environment they perform more anticipates fintechs evolving beyond 
talking to right now. efficiently than any process could single-product offerings into multi-
enforce. At a deliberate growth stage finance platforms. The super apps that 
The latter changed his outlook of around 50 people, it operates in consolidate diverse services around 
completely. It took him a while to small, focused teams, each responsible one customer relationship. In this 
implement it. Being candid, he also for launching or supporting a specific vision, standalone products will face 
shares that he still hasn't mastered the solution. This structure preserves increasing difficulty sustaining 
art. He always looks for room to entrepreneurial energy while ensuring relevance in isolation. 
improve. accountability and execution across 
markets. The team adds, “Our strategy was 
He adds, “It costs time, so time never to build one fancy product. It has 
management and multitasking became always been to build infrastructure: a 
portfolio of digital-finance products 
launched on a network of local 
companies across the African continent 
and beyond.” Promise of the Legacy end users. The organization brings to Its aspiration is clear: to be 
notice that when companies built on its remembered for technology that 
This architecture provides resilience Pavel mentions, “What my partners, rails deliver stronger services, elevates everyday financial services, 
against constant technological change. my team and I are dreaming of customers experience greater making them more accessible, fairly 
It enables adaptation piece by piece building is an ecosystem that lets convenience, expanded opportunities, priced, and consistently higher in 
without remolding the whole system. businesses across Africa run their and enhanced ability to save or earn. quality for businesses and their 
At the same time, the team underscores operations frictionlessly and This downstream impact is the true customers across continents. That 
that trust, even if it is harder to secure, borderless — reliably, without failures measure of relevance in digital finance. enduring contribution represents the 
is not generated by technology alone. It or delays. That may sound modest next superior legacy worth being 
is cultivated through the local presence to the industry's louder ambitions, but remembered for.
of partners powered by the in financial services, "it simply works, 
organization, embedded in the every time" is the rarest and most 
communities they serve. In this model, valuable promise you can keep.”
rails may be global, but trust remains 
inherently local.  The wholehearted aftermath is one step 
further down the chain. It defines its 
legacy not in terms of scale alone, but 
in the tangible improvements its 
infrastructure enables for millions of