When Emmanuel Udotong says the bank accounts for his export business get closed every six months, he’s not exaggerating. That, he explained, is the reality for many exporters moving money across borders, even when invoices and shipping records are in order. Legitimate payments get stuck, capital dries up, and businesses collapse.
For Udotong, his brother Isaiah, and their college friend Luis Carchi, this frustration was the breaking point that led them to start Shield. “We wanted to help bring blockchain technology into the real economy by solving real problems,” Udotong, the company’s CEO, told TechCrunch.
The team had lived the problem firsthand as former exporters. They’d seen how international banking and payments became choke points holding back entire trade corridors. In Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia, waiting days or weeks for a wire transfer isn’t unusual. Access to U.S. dollars can be scarce. Fees eat into margins. Growth is blocked before it can even start.
“When we saw how stablecoins could move money cross-border instantly and transparently, it clicked: this technology could finally give underserved exporters the financial reliability they need to stand on equal footing with their global competitors,” the team said in a statement.
Shield’s model is simple but ambitious: help exporters accept stablecoin payments like USDT from their international buyers and settle them as same-day U.S. dollar wires. That means businesses can benefit from the speed of blockchain without living in fear of unwarranted account closures.
“Many companies face limited trade corridors, less buyer opportunities, stunted growth, and, in too many cases, failure,” Udotong said. Shield wants to flip that script.
The company is calling itself a “neobank for global trade businesses.” It’s registered as a money service business in the U.S. and as a crypto exchange in the EU. Since pivoting to payments in 2024, Shield said it has already processed more than $150 million in transactions, $40 million in the last month alone.
Investors are buying in. The company just raised a $5 million seed round led by Giant Ventures, with participation from a16z’s crypto startup accelerator, Factor Capital, and strategic angels from Coinbase, Bank of America, and Amex. That brings Shield’s total funding to $7 million.
The fresh capital will go toward expanding licensing, building out compliance, and rolling out USDT-friendly accounts. Shield is also leaning heavily on AI to supercharge its compliance systems – reducing false positives while maintaining rigorous standards. “That includes expanding licensing coverage, upgrading transaction monitoring and fraud detection, and growing our compliance team headcount and expertise,” Udotong asserted.
“If we succeed, more businesses in underserved regions will survive and grow, creating jobs and wealth for their communities instead of being left behind,” he added.
That’s the bet: that crypto’s next chapter isn’t speculation, but survival – giving small and midsize businesses in overlooked corners of the world the same financial reliability as their TradFi-first peers. Shield calls it a neobank for global trade. For exporters stuck waiting on wires that may never land, it could feel like a lifeline.
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Pictured at the top of this post, from left to right: Emmanuel Udotong, Luis Carchi, Isaiah Udotong.
