Ivan Kroshnyi, founder of SharPay, on the move from trading into payments and why a payment setup can look diversified without being resilient.

SharPay is a payments platform for international businesses and entrepreneurs, bringing European IBANs, merchant accounts, payment processing, payouts, cards and access to digital-asset services into a single ecosystem. Its founder, Ivan Kroshnyi, is a UAE-based entrepreneur who spent more than a decade in financial trading before moving into brokerage, fintech and investment.

He is also co-founder and chief executive of Gerchik & Co. With his partners he has built and invested in a group of 30 businesses across 19 countries, spanning fintech, e-mobility, real estate and hospitality, and his work now centres on strategy, capital allocation, risk management and international business growth.

In this In Profile, Ivan Kroshnyi, founder of SharPay, discusses the route from trading into payments, why a payment setup can look diversified without being resilient, and what accountability should mean across a fragmented payment stack.

Tell us more about your company and its purpose

SharPay is a fintech platform designed to make cross-border money movement more practical for international businesses and entrepreneurs. It brings together services including European IBANs, merchant accounts, payment processing, payouts, cards and access to digital-asset services within one ecosystem.

The problem we are trying to solve is fragmentation. A company operating across several markets can end up managing multiple providers, currencies and settlement routes while remaining exposed to a single weak point in its payment setup.

We are developing API-led infrastructure that helps businesses connect these services more efficiently, with compliance and risk controls treated as part of the product. Our purpose is to give international businesses a payment setup that reflects how they actually operate, rather than forcing them into infrastructure designed around one country or one payment method.

What are some of your recent achievements you’d like to highlight?

Our recent work has focused on strengthening the infrastructure behind the platform. We have expanded our API capabilities for more complex business integrations, developed relationships with international payment providers and improved how different payment and settlement routes are connected.

We have also invested significant time in compliance architecture and operational resilience. In payments, adding another product or provider does not automatically make the system more reliable. You need to understand where funds move, which entity is responsible for each service and what happens if one route becomes unavailable.

These developments have enabled us to support more demanding cross-border use cases while building a stronger foundation for future growth. I am proud that we have prioritised the less visible parts of fintech: risk controls, service continuity and integration. Those are ultimately what determine whether a payment platform can scale responsibly.

How did you get into the fintech industry?

My route into fintech began with more than a decade in financial trading. Trading taught me to think constantly about liquidity, concentration, execution and the possibility that a position which looks safe can contain risks that are not immediately visible.

I later co-founded Gerchik & Co and became involved in building brokerage infrastructure. That experience showed me how much of a financial product depends on the systems operating behind the customer interface.

As I expanded into international business and investment, I encountered the same payment problems repeatedly: delayed settlements, disconnected providers, restrictions between jurisdictions and difficulty turning received funds into money a business could use immediately.

SharPay grew from those experiences. I did not enter fintech because it was a fashionable sector. I entered it because payment infrastructure had become a recurring operational problem across the businesses I was building.

What’s the best thing about working in the fintech industry?

The best part is seeing how financial infrastructure can directly affect whether a business is able to operate and grow.

A payment problem may sound technical, but in practice it can prevent a company from paying a supplier, entering a new market or accessing its own revenue. Improving one part of that process can therefore have a much wider commercial impact.

I also enjoy the combination of technology and risk management. You need to build systems that are fast and convenient, but you also need to consider what happens when a provider fails, regulations change or liquidity becomes more difficult to access.

When payment infrastructure works properly, it becomes almost invisible. The customer simply experiences reliability, clarity and control. Creating that experience while managing all the complexity behind it is what makes the industry interesting to me.

What frustrates you most about the fintech industry?

I am frustrated by the difference between visible innovation and structural improvement.

Fintech companies often focus on polished interfaces, rapid expansion and the number of payment methods they offer. Meanwhile, the underlying setup may still depend heavily on one provider, jurisdiction or route into usable funds. It can look diversified without being genuinely resilient.

Risk management, compliance and unit economics are less exciting subjects, but they determine whether a company survives periods of market stress. Speed is valuable, but it should be the result of good architecture rather than a substitute for it.

I would like to see the industry become more open about how payment products actually work: which entities provide the services, where the risks sit and what happens when part of the infrastructure becomes unavailable. Customers should be able to evaluate more than the front-end experience.

How have your previous roles influenced your career?

Trading shaped how I evaluate every business. It taught me to think about concentration risk, liquidity, downside protection and whether there is a realistic exit when conditions change.

Building a brokerage company added another perspective. I learned that customer trust depends not only on the product people see, but also on execution, controls and infrastructure behind it.

My experience across other industries, including logistics, real estate and hospitality, has also influenced how I approach fintech. It allowed me to experience payments as a business operator rather than only as a financial-services provider.

Today, I view a company's payment infrastructure as a risk portfolio. A business may work with several banks, processors and settlement methods, yet still depend on one jurisdiction or counterparty. My previous roles taught me to look beyond the number of providers and examine how the risks are actually connected.

What’s the best mistake you’ve ever made?

Earlier in my entrepreneurial career, I believed that a strong product and fast execution were enough to create a successful business. I underestimated how quickly regulation, market conditions and access to financial infrastructure could change.

That mistake forced me to reconsider how I approached growth. I began asking different questions before scaling: What happens if a key provider becomes unavailable? How dependent are we on one market? Can the business continue operating if liquidity becomes more expensive or regulations change?

It taught me that compliance, stress testing and risk management are not administrative barriers. They are part of the business model.

The lesson has influenced every company I have built or invested in since. Growth remains important, but I no longer consider growth sustainable unless the underlying structure can withstand conditions that are less favourable than the ones in which it was created.

What has the future got in store for your company?

The next phase for SharPay is focused on expanding our B2B payment infrastructure, deepening our API capabilities and growing carefully through appropriate international partners and jurisdictions.

We also expect the distinction between traditional payment rails and regulated digital-asset settlement to become less visible to the customer. Businesses do not necessarily want to become experts in blockchain infrastructure or manage separate financial workflows. They want a reliable way to move money, control approvals, reconcile transactions and access funds in a usable form.

Our goal is to make the appropriate payment or settlement route work in the background while giving the business a consistent experience.

We will measure growth through the reliability, integration and practical value of the infrastructure rather than simply by the number of products or markets we announce.

What are the next key talking points or challenges for your industry as a whole?

One of the industry’s most important challenges will be accountability across an increasingly fragmented payment stack.

Behind a single fintech interface, there may be banks, electronic money institutions, acquirers, card issuers, liquidity providers and digital-asset service providers. When a

payment is delayed, a service is suspended or regulations change, businesses need to understand who is responsible and how operations will continue.

Frameworks such as MiCA are raising regulatory expectations, but authorisation alone does not eliminate concentration, custody, settlement or operational-continuity risks.

The industry needs to move beyond selling individual payment rails and explain the architecture surrounding them: who safeguards funds, where operational liquidity sits, what happens when one provider becomes unavailable and how quickly a client can access usable money.

Digital assets and new cross-border technologies can improve settlement, but the strongest companies will be those that combine innovation with transparent responsibilities, compliance and genuine redundancy.

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