Executive Summary
Robel Kidin is the founder of BirrPay, a financial infrastructure platform transforming how businesses and developers access digital payments in Ethiopia. With a background as a Software Engineer at Apple, Robel brings world-class engineering expertise to solve one of Africa's most pressing fintech challenges.
His vision is to democratize access to financial infrastructure, making it as simple for Ethiopian businesses to accept payments online as it is for companies in developed markets. By abstracting the complexity of banking integrations, mobile wallets, and payment networks, BirrPay enables developers to build innovative products without getting bogged down in financial infrastructure.
Background
Robel Kidin spent several years as a Software Engineer at Apple, where he worked on mission-critical systems serving millions of users globally. His experience building scalable, reliable infrastructure at one of the world's most valuable technology companies gave him deep insights into what it takes to create world-class products.
During his time at Apple, Robel witnessed firsthand how seamless financial infrastructure enables innovation. He saw how developers in developed markets could integrate payments in minutes, while businesses in emerging markets like Ethiopia faced months of complex integrations, fragmented systems, and regulatory hurdles.
This experience, combined with his deep understanding of Ethiopia's growing digital economy, led him to found BirrPay in 2026. The company's mission is to bridge the infrastructure gap that has held back digital commerce in Ethiopia and across Africa.
Vision
Robel's vision is to transform Ethiopia's financial infrastructure, making it easy for developers and businesses to access currency on the internet. He believes that financial infrastructure should be invisible—developers should be able to integrate payments with a few lines of code, not months of negotiations with banks and payment processors.
The goal is to create a unified platform that abstracts away the complexity of:
- Connecting to multiple Ethiopian banks and financial institutions
- Integrating with mobile money platforms and digital wallets
- Handling international payment networks and currency conversions
- Managing compliance, security, and regulatory requirements
- Providing real-time transaction monitoring and analytics
By solving these infrastructure challenges, BirrPay enables Ethiopian businesses to compete globally and allows international companies to easily enter the Ethiopian market. This, in turn, increases the GDP of the internet in Ethiopia and creates opportunities for millions of entrepreneurs and developers.
Technical Approach
Drawing from his experience at Apple, Robel has built BirrPay with a focus on developer experience, reliability, and scalability. The platform provides:
- Simple APIs: RESTful APIs that developers can integrate in minutes, not months
- Comprehensive Documentation: Clear, actionable guides that make integration straightforward
- Developer Tools: SDKs, webhooks, and testing environments that accelerate development
- Reliability: Enterprise-grade uptime and security standards
- Transparency: Real-time dashboards and analytics for businesses
This approach has already enabled hundreds of businesses to accept payments online, process millions of transactions, and grow their revenue through digital channels.
Impact & Mission
Built with security and scalability as foundational principles, BirrPay's platform is architected to handle high-volume transactions—processing millions of transactions and serving hundreds of businesses—while maintaining enterprise-grade security standards. The platform is designed to become the infrastructure layer that powers e-commerce, SaaS platforms, marketplaces, and digital services throughout Ethiopia.
The ultimate mission is to make financial infrastructure so seamless and accessible that it becomes invisible—allowing Ethiopian developers and businesses to focus on building great products rather than solving payment problems. By doing this, BirrPay is not just processing transactions; it's enabling the next generation of Ethiopian technology companies to compete on the global stage.