Disberse

What Disberse does

Disberse was a London-based fintech that built a blockchain-based financial platform purpose-built for the humanitarian aid sector. Founded in 2016 by Ben Joakim and later co-founded by Paul Currion, the company sought to address three structural failures in international aid finance: slow cross-border transfers (weeks even in emergencies), high bank charges and poor exchange rates eroding aid value, and inability to trace funds end-to-end from donor to beneficiary — conditions that increase waste, fraud, and corruption. The core product was a distributed-ledger platform enabling end-to-end fund tracking and faster, cheaper cross-border transfers through channels set up between individual donors and recipients via partner banks in multiple countries.

The platform's distinguishing feature was regulatory legitimacy: Disberse received FCA authorisation in January 2018 as a Small Electronic Money Institution (SEMI), allowing it to issue and transfer electronic money under UK financial services regulation. It generated revenue via transaction fees on fund transfers processed through the platform, though pricing was not publicly disclosed and operated on a quote-based enterprise model. Distribution was direct and consultative, targeting large institutional buyers — government aid agencies (UK DFID/FCDO), UN agencies (UNOCHA), and NGO consortia (Start Network, Dutch Relief Alliance). The company progressed through alpha pilots in 2018 with NGO members of the Start Network across corridors including Netherlands-Ukraine, Ireland-Rwanda, and UK-Swaziland, and a beta pilot in 2020 with DFID and UNOCHA that included a simulation exercise based on over $140 million in historical Country Based Pooled Fund transactions from Iraq and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

In July 2020, an $8 million seed round collapsed when the key investor withdrew due to Covid-19-related economic uncertainty, and the company ceased active operations. Its website was converted into a learning hub to share pilot findings, sprint reports, and methodology — an unusual but explicit pivot from operating fintech to open-knowledge contribution.

Name

Disberse

Legal name

Disberse

Website

https://disberse.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Closed

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Disberse was a London-based fintech that built a blockchain-based fund management platform for the humanitarian aid sector, enabling faster, cheaper, and transparent cross-border transfers for NGOs, government aid agencies, and UN bodies.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Humanitarian Fintech / Cross-Border Aid Payments

NAICS

Financial Transactions Processing, Reserve, and Clearinghouse Activities (522320)

SIC

Finance Services (6199), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Payouts, Disbursements & Mass Payments Infrastructure (FSAGABAN)

akta.pro secondary industries

Cross-Border Payouts & Mass Disbursements (Pay-outs) (FSAMAIAJ), Blockchain Settlement & Clearing Infrastructure (On-/Off-chain Post-Trade) (FSAGAMAC), Payments, Remittances & Merchant Acceptance (checkout, invoicing, payroll) (FSAPAEAE)

Keywords

• Humanitarian aid payments
• Blockchain fund tracking
• Cross-border remittance
• Aid transparency platform
• Electronic money institution

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Platform Transaction Fees: Disberse generated revenue through transaction fees on fund transfers processed through their platform. The platform facilitated cash distributions between international locations, charging fees for faster, cheaper, and more transparent transfers compared to traditional banking channels.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Disberse built a blockchain-based financial platform purpose-built for the humanitarian aid industry, combining FCA-authorised electronic money institution status with distributed ledger technology. The platform enabled end-to-end traceability of funds from donor to recipient, faster cross-border transfers, and lower transaction costs via better exchange rates and reduced bank charges for NGOs, UN agencies, and government aid departments.

Product overview

Disberse is a single unified product offering — a blockchain-based financial platform designed to transform how money flows for social impact in the aid industry. The core Disberse Platform addresses the problems of slow, expensive, and opaque international fund transfers by enabling end-to-end traceability, faster transfers (potentially within days rather than weeks), and reduced costs through better exchange rates and lower bank charges. The platform was developed through Alpha and Beta phases with pilot implementations involving various NGO partners including Dorcas International, Start Network, UK Government, and UNOCHA.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Disberse Platform Blockchain-based financial platform designed for the humanitarian aid industry, enabling end-to-end traceability of funds from donor to recipient, faster cross-border transfers, and reduced transaction costs through better exchange rates and lower bank charges. Targeted at international NGOs, UN agencies, and government aid departments.

Quantifiable outcome

• Simulation exercise based on historical transactions worth over $140 million demonstrated platform capabilities for tracking Country Based Pooled Funds
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• UK Government Department for International Development (DFID)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 July 2019Partnership with DFID as part of the Frontier Technology Livestreaming (FTL) programme starting July 2019. DFID later became FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office). Partnership involved structured beta pilot program with multiple sprints including stakeholder consultation, data collection and analysis, and simulation exercises based on historical transactions.
• United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 July 2019Partnership with UNOCHA as part of the FTL beta pilot program. Conducted research and analysis of Country Based Pooled Funds in Iraq and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, culminating in simulation exercises based on over $140 million in historical transactions.
• Dutch Relief Alliance NGO ConsortiummajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2019Partnership with Dutch Relief Alliance NGO consortium including Netherlands Red Cross for the 121 Project. Disberse was responsible for setting up channels between individual donors in Netherlands and UK, and individual recipients via banks in Ethiopia and Malawi. Pilot was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Start NetworkcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 July 2017Strategic partnership with the Start Network (a global network of NGOs) beginning July 2017 for delivery of alpha series of pilots. Start Network members including Dorcas International, Terre des Hommes, SOS Kinderdorpen participated in pilots validating the Disberse model of distributing funds faster, cheaper and more transparently.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights2 records

Broad incumbents

• Modulr: Modulr is a UK FCA-authorised payments-as-a-service platform operating at scale; it shares Disberse's regulatory posture as an authorised EMI but serves broader commercial payment volumes.
• Currencycloud: Currencycloud provides cross-border payment infrastructure for fintechs and banks, comparable in cross-border payout capability but operating at vastly greater scale as a broad incumbent.
• Wise: Wise operates cross-border payment infrastructure at global scale with strong transparency on fees and exchange rates — the incumbent benchmark for what Disberse aimed to deliver in humanitarian corridors.

Emerging players

• BanQu: BanQu provides blockchain-based economic identity and supply chain transparency with humanitarian and development use cases, an emerging peer in adjacent fintech-for-good territory.

Direct peers

• Sempo: Sempo is a blockchain-based cash and voucher transfer platform for humanitarian response, directly comparable to Disberse in serving NGOs and aid agencies with transparent last-mile disbursements.
• World Food Programme Building Blocks: WFP's Building Blocks programme uses blockchain for humanitarian cash transfers, the most prominent direct comparison to Disberse given its institutional scale and humanitarian mandate.
• Aid:Tech: Aid:Tech builds blockchain-based digital identity and aid distribution solutions for humanitarian and development programmes, closely paralleling Disberse's mission of transparent cross-border aid disbursements.

Others

• Kiva: Kiva operates a mission-aligned crowdfunding and lending platform for financially excluded populations, thematically comparable in development finance but operating a different model than Disberse's blockchain rails.
• Stellar Development Foundation: Stellar provides blockchain payment rails used by humanitarian and financial inclusion projects, including some aid disbursements — an infrastructure-layer participant rather than a direct competitor.

Regional players

• Yellow Card: Yellow Card is a blockchain-based cross-border payments and remittance platform focused on Africa, comparable in cross-border disbursement infrastructure but with regional rather than humanitarian focus.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/disberse
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/imogen-bunyard-17711981

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Disberse