Kenya's digital economy has demonstrated how transformative accessible digital payments can be. From mobile money transactions to online marketplaces and subscription-based software, businesses increasingly depend on reliable finance financial infrastructure to serve customers, manage operations and expand their reach.
Yet, as commerce becomes more interconnected, businesses face a new challenge: integrating multiple payment methods, reconciling transactions across different systems, protecting funds during commercial transactions and automating payments to suppliers, employees and partners.
At Tideflash Software Solutions Limited, we are addressing these challenges through SMPLY PAY, a payment infrastructure platform designed to connect M-Pesa, Cryptocurrency payment capabilities and business software through a unified wallet system, transaction ledger and developer API.
SMPLY PAY is designed to help businesses, marketplaces, software providers and digital platforms build more integrated payment experiences without having to develop every underlying payment integration independently.
What is SMPLY PAY?
SMPLY PAY is a multi-currency payments platform that enables individuals, businesses and software applications to manage payments, wallet balances, transfers, escrow transactions and settlements through a common infrastructure layer.
The platform integrates with Safaricom's M-Pesa Daraja API for mobile money transactions and supports cryptocurrency deposit capabilities across Ethereum, Polygon, Celo, Optimism and Solana. It is designed to bring Kenya shilling balances and supported digital assets into a unified wallet experience.
Rather than treating payments as isolated transactions, SMPLY PAY combines payment processing with financial workflows such as escrow management, automated settlement, wallet-to-wallet transfers, transaction fee management and accounting reconciliation.
The platform also exposes its functionality through a signed REST API and webhooks, allowing partner applications to integrate payments directly into their existing systems.
This architecture supports Tideflash's broader approach to software engineering: building reusable digital infrastructure that enables businesses to develop specialized products no top of shared, well-defined systems.
The Challenge: Payments are Fragmented Across Business Systems
For many businesses in Kenya, accepting a payment is only the beginning of the process.
An e-commerce platform must confirm that a customer has paid, associate the payment with an order, calculate commissions, manage vendor obligations and reconcile the resulting transactions. A legal-practice management platform may need to fund client or firm wallets, collect subscriptions and process staff payments. A marketplace may need to hold funds until a supplier fulfils an order.
These workflows become increasingly complex when different payment channels and financial systems operate independently.
1. Integrating mobile money requires more than a checkout button
M-pesa integrations involve authentication, payment initiation, callback processing, transaction status management and payout workflows. Businesses must also account for failed requests, delayed notifications and duplicate events.
Implementing these capabilities independently can create additional engineering and maintenance overhead.
SMPLY PAY centralizes key M-Pesa integration workflows, including STK Push, Paybill deposits, B2C payouts to phones and B2B payouts to Paybills and tills.
2. Digital assets introduce another layer of complexity
Businesses serving international customers or working with digital assets may need to handle cryptocurrency deposits, exchange rates and conversion into local currency.
When these capabilities operate separately from mobile money and business applications, financial reporting and reconciliation become more difficult.
SMPLY PAY is designed to bridge these workflows through multi-currency wallets, supported cryptocurrency deposit monitoring and crypto-to-KES conversion functionality.
3. Marketplaces need payment controls beyond collection
Collecting funds does not automatically solve the commercial challenges between buyers and sellers.
Marketplaces may need to hold funds until delivery, deduct platform commissions, accommodate partial refunds and resolve disputes. These processes require payment infrastructure that understands commercial transactions rather than simply recording incoming money.
SMPLY PAY incorporates escrow and settlement workflows to support these requirements.
4. Reconciliation and payouts can consume valuable operational time
Manual payment reconciliation and individually approved payouts introduce unnecessary administrative work, particularly for businesses managing multiple vendors, employees or projects.
A reliable payment system must provide consistent transaction references, traceable ledger entries, automated notifications and structured payout workflows.
SMPLY PAY addresses these requirements through an append-only ledger, API references, signed webhooks and batch payout functionality.
One Payments Infrastructure Layer for Multiple Financial Workflows
The central principle behind SMPLY PAY is straightforward: connect payment channels, financial operations and business applications through one consistent infrastructure layer.
Instead of requiring each partner application to independently implement payment processing, escrow logic, transaction tracking and settlement rules, SMPLY PAY provides shared services that applications can access through its dashboard and API.
The platform combines several capabilities.
Multi-currency wallets
SMPLY PAY supports wallets that bring Kenyan Shillings and supported cryptocurrency balances into one interface.
Its documented currency support includes KES alongside ETH, POL, CELO, OP and SOL, with USDT and USDC detection across supported blockchain networks.
Wallets can also be shared with team members under view or management permissions, allowing businesses to coordinate financial operations while controlling access.
M-Pesa deposits and payouts
The platform integrates with Safaricom Daraja API to support mobile money payment workflows.
These include:
- STK Push payment initiation.
- Paybill deposits with wallet-specific account numbers.
- B2C payouts to mobile phone numbers.
- B2B payouts to Paybills and tills.
- Payment notifications and transaction tracking.
- Recovery workflows for missed Paybill payment callbacks.
By centralizing these integrations, SMPLY PAY provides partner applications with a reusable foundation for M-Pesa-enabled services.
Cryptocurrency deposits and conversion
SMPLY PAY incorporates cryptocurrency deposit monitoring across supported blockchain networks, including USDT and USDC detection.
The platform also provides crypto-to-KES conversion functionality using an internal rate engine or Yellow Card integration. Conversion quotes are locked for a defined period so that the rate confirmed by a user is the rate applied to the transaction, subject to the quote's validity.
This capability is particularly relevant to platforms exploring cross-border digital commerce, stablecoin-based receipts and conversion into Kenyan shillings.
Live native-coin deposit detection and live cryptocurrency payouts remain development roadmap items.
Escrow and commercial settlement
Escrow is one of the platform's key capabilities for businesses operating marketplaces and multi-vendor commerce systems.
SMPLY PAY supports configurable escrow arrangements in which funds can be held until a defined condition, such as delivery confirmation, is satisfied.
The platform includes:
- Two-party escrow with an optional manager.
- Configurable commission allocation.
- Dispute management.
- Partial refunds before delivery.
- Batch escrow creation for multi-vendor orders.
- Release of funds following the applicable confirmation workflow.
These capabilities help software platforms connect payment processing with the underlying commercial relationship between buyers, sellers and intermediaries.
Automated settlements and batch payouts
Businesses frequently need to distribute incoming funds among multiple parties or pay a large number of recipients.
SMPLY PAY supports configurable settlement rules that direct a percentage of incoming deposits to another wallet, phone number, Paybill or till.
It also supports withdrawal batches covering up to 200 KES payouts, which can be confirmed through a single one-time password (OTP).
These workflows can reduce repetitive administrative steps in payroll, supplier payments, marketplace settlements and revenue-sharing arrangements.
Accounting and transaction reconciliation
A payment platform must do more than move funds. It must also help businesses understand where money came from, where it went and how transactions relate to their accounting records.
SMPLY PAY uses an append-only, double-entry ledger as its financial recordkeeping foundation. Wallet balances are derived from ledger entries rather than maintained as independently editable balance figures.
The platform also includes integrations for synchronizing ledger entries with QuickBooks Online and Zoho Books.
Designed for Developers: A Signed API and Webhook Architecture
SMPLY PAY is built to serve both end users and the software systems that support them.
Every major capability available through the user dashboard is designed to be accessible through the platform's /api/v1 REST API, allowing partner applications to integrate payment functionality into their own workflows.
The API covers wallet management, deposits, withdrawals, transfers, escrow, payment requests and managed accounts.
For example, a marketplace can initiate a payment, associate it with an order, create escrow arrangements for vendors and receive transaction updates through webhooks. A subscription-based application can use wallet transfers and payment events to support its billing workflows.
Request signing and integration security
The API uses HMAC request signing to authenticate partner requests. Requests include an API key identifier, timestamp, nonce and signature.
Additional controls include:
- Nonce replay protection.
- Timestamp validation.
- Constant-time signature comparisons.
- Optional partner IP allowlists.
- Signed webhooks with retry and backoff.
- Stable transaction references for reconciliation.
The platform also documents an additive API compatibility approach, intended to protect existing integrations from unnecessary breaking changes.
For developers and software companies, this creates an integration model in which payment functionality can become part of an application rather than a separate operational system.
Security and Operational Controls
Security is a foundational part of SMPLY PAY's design because the platform handles sensitive payment workflows and financial records.
The system overview documents several controls intended to protect accounts, integrations and transaction processing.
These include OTP-based authentication and transaction confirmation, role-based access control, encrypted storage of sensitive secrets using AES-256-GCM envelope encryption, rate limiting, input validation and append-only audit logging enforced through database triggers.
M-Pesa callbacks are authenticated using a shared secret and IP allowlists. The platform also includes safeguards against webhook requests targeting internal addresses, alongside operational limits for live payout activity.
Administrative tools provide visibility into platform activity, API usage, security events, fee schedules and flagged usage patterns.
These controls form part of the platform's security architecture. They should not, however, be interpreted as a claim of independent security certification or regulatory approval.
For businesses evaluating payment infrastructure, security must be considered alongside operational controls, provider dependencies, applicable regulatory requirements and the specific arrangements under which customer funds are held and transferred.
Already Supporting Real Software Use Cases
SMPLY PAY has been developed to support practical financial workflows across the Tideflash software ecosystem.
E-Commerce and ERP platforms
SMPLY Store and its associated storefronts use SMPLY PAY for payment workflows involving platforms such as Moolyka.
The documented integration supports checkout flows that can create separate escrow arrangements for vendor orders, distribute commissions and process partial refunds when an order's price changes.
For marketplaces, this connects the payment process with order management, vendor obligations and settlement operations.
Legal-practice management software
Yawakili, Tideflash's legal-practice management platform, integrates with SMPLY PAY through the partner API.
Each law firm can have its own wallet, fund it through STK Push, pay platform subscriptions through wallet transfers, withdraw to M-Pesa and process staff payments through a withdrawal batch.
This demonstrates how a shared payments layer can support financial workflows within a specialized SaaS product.
Additional application areas
The same infrastructure model can support other use cases, subject to the relevant integration and operational requirements:
- Marketplaces: Escrow, vendor commissions and order-based settlement.
- SaaS platforms: Wallet-based subscription payments and payment-event integrations.
- Payroll and supplier management: Structured payout batches and automated distribution.
- Revenue sharing: Percentage-based settlement rules.
- Teams and groups: Shared wallets with defined member permissions.
- Cross-border commerce: Supported stablecoin deposits and conversion workflows.
The broader opportunity is to make payments a reusable component of digital products, rather than a collection of disconnected integrations.
The Future of Payments Infrastructure in Africa
Africa's digital economy needs infrastructure that can connect local payment systems, digital financial services and business applications without forcing every software provider to solve the same engineering problems independently.
For Kenyan businesses, M-Pesa remains a critical payment channel. At the same time, the emergence of stablecoin-based workflows and increasingly interconnected software platforms creates opportunities for more flexible financial operations.
Realizing these opportunities requires more than adding payment methods. It requires dependable transaction records, clear settlement rules, secure integrations, reliable reconciliation and workflows that reflect how businesses actually operate.
SMPLY PAY represents Tideflash Software Solutions' approach to this challenge: building a shared payments infrastructure layer that connects payment rails with the software systems businesses use to operate, transact and grow.
By bringing wallets, payment integrations, escrow, settlement logic and developer tools into one platform, SMPLY PAY is designed to help software companies and businesses build more capable financial workflows on a common foundation.
As the platform continues to evolve, its long-term direction is clear: making payments infrastructure more accessible to the businesses and software platforms shaping Africa's digital economy.
