Mallick Bolakale, CEO Startbutton, has explained that their deep understanding of why and how businesses expand across countries is why they are a merchant of record for companies looking to expand in Africa.

Speaking on why Startbutton exists, Bolakale said: “We understand that businesses expand primarily because they want to sell more, so we take care of the administrative and legal headache while the company focuses on selling.”

A statement by the firm noted that the dream of every business is to increase its revenue, which can be achieved through different ways including expanding to new markets.

However, expanding to new markets comes with its requirements: time-consuming and expensive local incorporation; cumbersome payment and foreign exchange; and managing fraud and compliance issues.

All these issues can sorted out by using a merchant of record – a legal entity responsible for selling goods or services to an end customer, such as Startbutton.

Founded by Mallick Bolakale and Kelechi Oti in 2022, Startbutton is a merchant of record that enables businesses to accept payments in local currencies and manage local compliance without needing to establish local offices. Oti has been the lead software engineer at various firms, including Microsoft, Kobo360, and Terragon.

Bolakale, who formerly worked at Paystack as compliance lead, says, in simple terms, by integrating with Startbutton you can legally do business (buy and sell) in seven African countries (South Africa, Rwanda, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and others) at the click of a button.

“We have onboarded merchants from more than 20 countries. We currently operate in seven countries and have partnered with numerous global payment companies.

“This collaboration connects our merchants to over 400 million wallets and bank accounts across 5 major African currencies in Sub-saharan Africa.

“Through our extensive network of partners, we enable multinational businesses to transact by accepting and settling payments across various countries,” Bolakale said.