QvaPay: The Platform Connecting Cuban Entrepreneurs With Payments, Collections, and Digital Dollars

Mediaplus Experience

Published: July 30, 2026, 12:30 p.m.
Updated: August 2, 2026, 2:06 p.m.

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Ariel has a small private business in Cuba. Every month, he needs to purchase merchandise abroad, pay suppliers, and manage the money his business generates. But moving funds into and out of the island remains one of the principal challenges facing thousands of Cuban entrepreneurs.

The limitations of the traditional financial system, the difficulty of accessing international banking services, and the lack of tools designed for the needs of the private sector have forced many business owners to seek alternatives. QvaPay was created precisely to address that problem.

A Solution Created for Cuba’s New Realities

QvaPay is a digital financial platform—a type of company known by the English acronym “fintech”—that seeks to facilitate payments, collections, e-commerce, and financial management for individuals and businesses both inside and outside the island.

Founded by Cuban entrepreneur Erich García Cruz and American attorney Tim Parsa, it has operated for more than six years and, according to its executives, has a community of more than 150,000 users. Its founders explain that its objective is to provide access to modern financial tools in a context where many global options remain difficult for Cubans to use.

“The idea is to offer emerging, highly regulated, and closed economies such as Cuba’s an alternative for payments, collections, invoicing, online commerce, and opportunities that normally do not exist within traditional banking,” adds García Cruz, the platform’s CEO.

How It Works, Step by Step

To open an account, the user registers through the app or website using their personal information. Once the account has been created, the user can receive funds—whether a family remittance, payment for a service, or payment from a customer—which are reflected as a digital balance denominated in dollars. To convert that balance through the P2P market—person-to-person or peer-to-peer—the user must first complete an identity-verification process that includes providing an official identification document and undergoing facial recognition.

That balance can be used in several ways: to pay another user within the platform, make an online purchase, or convert it into other forms of value circulating in Cuba, such as Cuban pesos (CUP), freely convertible currency (MLC), mobile-phone top-ups, or cash. These conversions take place through a P2P market in which other users offer them at rates they set themselves according to supply and demand.

According to the company, this rate is generally more favorable than the rate available in the traditional informal market, although—as in any P2P market—it varies depending on who is available to conduct a transaction at any given time.

A Tool for the Private Sector

Since 2021, Cuba has experienced an expansion of private businesses following the legalization of small and medium-sized enterprises. This sector represents an increasingly important part of the country’s commercial activity.

Nevertheless, many entrepreneurs continue to face a fundamental problem: obtaining access to dollars and conducting international transactions.

According to the company, a micro, small, or medium-sized enterprise can use QvaPay to manage international payments, pay for imports, and administer resources intended for future commercial transactions.

Among the most frequent uses reported by the company are paying foreign suppliers for imported merchandise, collecting payments for services from customers inside and outside Cuba, and converting income received in Cuban pesos into a digital balance in order to accumulate capital for the next foreign purchase.

The logic is as follows: the business imports products, sells them in Cuba, converts part of the resulting income back into dollars through the P2P market, and uses that balance to pay for the next import.

To learn more about its services, users can visit QvaPay’s website or download its mobile applications through several platforms:

Google Play
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A Bridge Between Remittances and Business

For QvaPay, one of the most interesting aspects of its model is the connection between remittances and private economic activity.

The company explains that many dollars initially arrive through family transfers or payments originating abroad. Those resources subsequently circulate within the Cuban economy when recipients purchase goods and services from private businesses.

Entrepreneurs, in turn, accumulate balances that they can use to pay suppliers or finance new imports.

According to the company, this dynamic allows individuals, families, and businesses to participate within the same digital financial network, generating a continuous flow of economic exchange.

Beyond Cryptocurrencies

Although blockchain technology forms part of QvaPay’s infrastructure, the company emphasizes that its principal objective is not to promote cryptocurrency use but to offer practical financial solutions.

For that reason, much of the technological work takes place in the background. The platform is designed so that users can focus on managing their money, collecting payments, making payments, or growing their businesses without needing to master complex technical concepts.

“With QvaPay, you can have a digital account denominated in USD; the platform is designed so that users do not have to interact with the underlying technology,” explains Erich García Cruz.

Operations and Regulatory Framework

Legal and regulatory matters are the specialty of co-founder Tim Parsa, an American attorney with prior experience in regulatory compliance for fintech companies serving emerging markets, including Uphold and Airtm.

QvaPay operates from the United States. According to the company, it is registered as a Money Services Business (MSB) with the federal Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)—a mandatory filing for money-services businesses in that country—and operates under general licenses issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) relating to the transmission of family remittances and support for Cuba’s private sector.

The company clarifies that it is not regulated in Cuba because the island lacks a specific regulatory framework for fintech companies, and that its activities are governed by the U.S. laws applicable to its business model.

A Commitment to Cuba’s Digital Economy

For QvaPay’s founders, the current moment represents a unique opportunity to develop new financial tools aimed at Cuba’s private sector.

According to the company, the growth of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, the expansion of digital commerce, and the increase in economic connections between Cuba and its diaspora have created growing demand for solutions capable of facilitating payments, collections, and international transactions.

This is accompanied by the company’s own evolution. What began as an initiative centered on digital assets has transformed, its founders say, into a platform seeking to offer an increasingly broad range of financial services to entrepreneurs, independent workers, and families.

After more than six years of operations, QvaPay presents itself as one of the digital financial platforms most widely used by Cubans seeking alternatives for managing money, making international payments, or conducting commercial activities.

As the private sector continues to grow and the digital economy gains ground, the company intends to continue developing tools that connect Cubans with new financial opportunities both inside and outside the island.