🇪🇺HEVN: Cross-Border Business Banking API Platform – Local EU/US/UAE Accounts, Stablecoins & Payroll

Concept

HEVN is a fintech platform for cross-border business; it is not a bank: banking services are provided by regulated partner banks. The platform acts as a single interface on top of first-tier banks — with J.P. Morgan, HSBC and Citi in the settlement stack — combining digital compliance and single-window account opening. The company is incorporated in Delaware with its operating centre in San Francisco; it launched in 2026 in the Y Combinator Spring 2026 batch, positioned as "Brex for non-US companies".

From a single dashboard a company opens named local accounts in several jurisdictions: the EU (Lithuania, SEPA), the US (ACH and domestic wire), the UAE (AED, UAEFTS) and the United Kingdom — plus a global SWIFT account and a stablecoin account. Onboarding is online: KYB typically takes under a week, and accounts open in roughly 2–7 days.

Team and Y Combinator

The founders are Petr Volnov (CEO), Andrei Zhevlakov (CTO), Nikita Briuzgin (CPO) and Pavel Mitsevich (CMO). Before HEVN the same four built HOT Labs — the Web3 infrastructure behind the HERE and HOT wallets: 15 million users, $100M+ TVL and eight consecutive months as the top crypto app on DappRadar. Running companies across San Francisco, the UAE, the BVI and Hong Kong, the founders encountered the problem themselves: opening a UAE account took six months and ended in an AML review right after the first transaction; some banks required in-person KYC with flights; maintaining banking access cost around $24K a year in legal fees.

The product grew out of that experience: giving non-US companies the same access to USD infrastructure that US companies have. The project went through Y Combinator (Spring 2026 batch, group partner Pete Koomen); its first customers were companies the team knew from the HOT Labs days, and 70% of transaction volume ran through the API from day one.

Use Cases

• Startups – accounts in days, without months of waiting for a traditional bank.
• Cross-border payroll and contractors – hire contractors using local contract templates and pay in 100+ countries; contractors get an app with a card and USD account.
• E-commerce and international SMBs – receive revenue on local rails (SEPA, ACH, UAEFTS) and cards for expenses.
• Web3 and stablecoin companies – fiat↔stablecoin bridge with audit-ready records for every transaction.
• Finance operations automation – accounts, payments, invoices, and payroll via API, CLI, and MCP; management including from AI agents (Claude, Codex), with spending limits on each API key.

Regulatory Context

HEVN Inc. (Delaware, USA) is a fintech company, not a bank: accounts and payments are provided by regulated partner banks, while HEVN is responsible for the interface, routing and the first-line compliance layer. Accounts are opened on partners' local rails: the EU (Lithuania, SEPA), the US (ACH and domestic wire), the UAE (UAEFTS) and the United Kingdom; separately, a global SWIFT account.

A distinction that matters legally is the account format. A named local account is opened in the client company's own name; pooled structures (omnibus "for benefit of" accounts) are used only on certain corridors and are marked in the table below. Deposit insurance applies under the rules of the partner bank and its jurisdiction (in the US — FDIC, within limits): it is protection at the bank level, not at HEVN's.

The stablecoin layer works differently. Balances are held in USDC (issued by Circle; reserves are cash and short-term US Treasury obligations, with the federal framework for issuers set by the GENIUS Act of 2025) in self-custodial Privy (Stripe) wallets: private keys remain with the client, and HEVN cannot dispose of the assets without the client's authorization. On withdrawal, USDC is converted to fiat through a partner holding a CASP licence under MiCA. Digital assets are not bank deposits and are not covered by FDIC insurance.

Banking and settlement infrastructure is provided by HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Citi, Banking Circle (SEPA and stablecoin settlement; CASP-licensed), Zand Bank (the AED / UAEFTS corridor) and Visa (cards); the primary network for stablecoin transfers is Base. The full corridor-by-corridor lineup is below, in the Correspondent Banks section.

Correspondent Banks

The quality of a neobank is determined not by the app but by its correspondents — whoever actually holds the money and runs settlement. HEVN's stack by corridor:

The correspondent lineup is not static: banks are added as volumes grow and new corridors open. In our neobank rating by correspondent quality, HEVN sits in Tier I.

Erebor: the SWIFT corridor sponsor bank

HEVN's SWIFT leg is held by Erebor Bank, N.A. — a new American national bank founded by Palmer Luckey (the creator of Anduril) with the participation of Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and Joe Lonsdale's 8VC. The licensing timeline fit within a year: preliminary conditional OCC approval in October 2025, FDIC insurance in December 2025, and a full national charter with launch on roughly $625M of initial capital in February 2026. It is the first American bank in years built from scratch for technology, crypto and defense companies; by mid-2026 it holds about $4B in deposits and, per Bloomberg, is discussing a round at a valuation of $8B or more.

Two characteristics matter for a HEVN client. First, Erebor's target segment expressly includes non-US companies that need access to the U.S. banking system — the profile of the platform's typical client. Second, stablecoin operations are described in the bank's regulator-approved business plan: digital assets in a client's payment history are a core subject of analysis for its compliance, not grounds to close the account. Behind the global SWIFT account, in other words, stands a capitalized, insured American bank rather than an anonymous provider of account details.

Products

• Named local accounts – EU (Lithuania, SEPA), USA (ACH + domestic wire), UAE (AED, UAEFTS), United Kingdom.
• Global SWIFT account and stablecoin account (USDC) with fiat↔stablecoin on/off-ramp; support for 20+ blockchains (on BASE and NEAR – no fees).
• Payments – SEPA, ACH, wire, SWIFT, UAEFTS, stablecoins, and internal HEVN transfers.
• Invoicing – issue and pay invoices, including with a single call via MCP / agent scenario.
• Payroll and contractors – hire using local contract templates, pay in 100+ countries; contractors get a wallet, card, and USD account.
• Visa card (stablecoin-backed): USDC is debited from HEVN balance at the moment of transaction.
• Reporting – statements by period, receipts, expense categorization, audit-ready records for fiat and crypto.
• API / CLI / MCP – automate accounts, payments, invoices, and payroll; manage from internal tools and AI agents; spending limits on each API key.
• Security – role-based access (view / request / approve / execute), hardware passkeys (WebAuthn) and 2FA for every login and sensitive action, IP whitelist by member and role, immutable audit log.
• Sub-accounts for AI agents — each agent operates in an isolated sub-account with its own budget: per-transaction, per-day or lifetime limits per API key, plus manual approval of critical actions and real-time monitoring.

Fees and Corridors

HEVN publishes a flat 0.25% fee on core corridors plus $1 per transaction; currency conversion is 0.1–0.3%, stablecoin withdrawals are 0%. Local corridors cover 30+ countries, payroll and business operations — 82, contractor payouts — 100+. Stablecoin transfers are free and instant. Data per HEVN materials; current pricing on their website.

What Sets It Apart

HEVN positions itself as an API-first platform: account opening, invoices, hiring, and payments – programmatically, via API, CLI, and MCP, with limits and approvals. In its own comparison with Deel, Revolut, and Wise, the company highlights $0 per recipient, spending limits on API keys, invoicing and hiring API, CLI, and contractor wallet. The closest US analogue is Mercury — a partner-bank platform built for US-incorporated companies; HEVN's focus is the reverse: non-US businesses that need US, EU and UAE rails. Unlike crypto neobanks and crypto banks with their own insured custody — Sygnum, AMINA Bank — HEVN's crypto is non-custodial – control and risk are on the client side.

Key rows from HEVN's own comparison with Deel and Wise (per gethevn.com, June 2026):

private.hevn: the Premium Tier

private.law clients get a dedicated tier, private.hevn — service built to private banking standards: it adapts to the client, with no transfer fees and no turnover or conversion requirements. We run onboarding together with a dedicated HEVN manager; the account opens in 1–2 days versus the standard 2–7.

The investor tier is an equity entry: $15,000 is allocated into HEVN's round via the private.ventures syndicated fund for accredited investors. The investor gets preferential service terms and an early-stage position in the company — earning alongside its growth.

Roadmap

In the works through Q4 2026 — per the team's materials and our own data as project curators:

• Own financial licence — moving beyond the pure partner model.
• US sponsor bank — FDIC-insured USD storage without a US entity or EIN.
• Yield on balances — T-Bills and Money Market funds.
• Credit cards and factoring.
• Prime Brokerage for private.law clients.

These are plans, not promises: licensing timelines belong to regulators. But the vector is clear — from a wrapper platform to a full financial institution.

private.law's Position

We have observed this market for years and have worked with practically every notable provider — and none satisfied us enough to become our anchor banking recommendation for clients. The mass segment competes for retail users and economizes on functionality, security and support; some players, knowingly or not, end up serving high-risk flows. For a demanding corporate or private client willing to pay for predictability and service, the choice remained unsatisfactory.

HEVN is the first project we curate personally: we help the team with client onboarding, product development, licensing and legal matters. Based on our experience with other neobanks, we consider the HEVN team the strongest on the market and the product the most promising.

Not Suitable For

• Large reserve storage and private banking – HEVN is not a bank; deposit protection only within partner bank limits. For reserves and capital management – Banks and private banking.
• Bank guarantees, letters of credit, trade finance – the platform does not issue banking instruments.
• Insured custodial crypto – wallet is non-custodial, keys belong to the client; there is no insured custody here.

Onboarding and reliance: opening an account for a non-resident company

Opening a dollar account for a company without a US presence is a matter of the file, not the form. The decision rests with the correspondent bank (for HEVN's SWIFT corridor — Erebor): it is the correspondent that admits a structure into the dollar system. A non-resident company with no office, no website and no clear operating history lands, by default, in the high-risk zone for compliance: it is unclear who the beneficiary is, what the source of funds is and why the account is needed. The practical consequence is refusals or drawn-out cycles of follow-up requests.

We remove that friction through reliance — a mechanism expressly provided for by UK anti-money-laundering law (The Money Laundering Regulations 2017, reg. 39): a financial institution may rely on customer due diligence (CDD) performed by another supervised person — in our case, solicitors supervised by the SRA. Responsibility for the outcome of the checks remains with the bank itself, which is why reliance only works when the file is impeccable — and the file is precisely what we produce. The reliance opinion records that the client has been identified, KYB and the ownership structure down to the UBO have been completed, the documents are genuine and the source of funds is confirmed. For the bank, this moves the case from "an unknown non-resident structure" to "a file prepared by a regulated lawyer that can formally be relied upon".

What goes into the pack (a typical non-resident KYB):

• certificate of incorporation, articles and memorandum of association, and where needed a certificate of good standing with an apostille;
• registers of directors and members, an ownership chart down to the ultimate beneficial owners (UBO);
• passports and proof of address for directors and UBOs;
• a business description, website, expected volumes and currencies, counterparties' countries;
• source of funds and source of wealth — contracts, invoices, statements and audits where available;
• the solicitor's reliance opinion as the cover of the entire file.

What the correspondent almost always asks — and what we prepare answers to in advance:

• Where is the office — physical presence and substance, or a mailbox company.
• Where is the website — does the business operate publicly and does the description match reality.
• Counterparties' jurisdictions — who pays you and whom you pay; any nexus to sanctioned countries.
• Payment routes — which rails and which countries the money moves through (SEPA, ACH, SWIFT, UAEFTS, stablecoins).
• Nature and volume of operations — the account's purpose, expected monthly turnover, average ticket.
• Source of the first deposit — where the first funds on the account come from.
• Crypto — whether you touch digital assets, which ones and how; for Erebor this is a core question, not a stop factor.

The rest of the process is standard: the correspondent sends requests for information (RFI), we respond with the document pack and the opinion, and the account opens. On the private.hevn tier we run the entire cycle together with a dedicated HEVN manager and keep the reliance opinion ready — which is why accounts open in 1–2 days instead of the standard 2–7.

How it works in practice

1. Scope. We look at the company profile: jurisdiction, the corridors you need (SEPA, ACH, UAEFTS, SWIFT, stablecoins), volumes, and what your current bank fails at. This is also where we say honestly if the task is not for HEVN — see Not Suitable For.
2. Documents and KYB. Corporate documents, ownership structure down to the UBO, business description and source of funds — a standard digital KYB pack, with no in-person visits.
3. Onboarding. Online application; on the private.hevn tier we run the process together with a dedicated HEVN manager.
4. Result. Local accounts on the corridors you need, a card, and — where relevant — API access, payroll and a stablecoin wallet.

Timeline: KYB typically takes less than a week, accounts open in roughly 2–7 days; on the private.hevn tier — 1–2 days.

Cost: HEVN's base pricing is 0.25% on core corridors plus $1 per transaction; private.hevn — $2,250 opening and $300/mo, or a $15,000 allocation for investors. Details in the tables above.

Sources

• HEVN — official website and pricing
• OCC — 2025 news releases and FDIC — press releases: Erebor Bank conditional charter approval (October 2025) and deposit insurance (December 2025)
• GENIUS Act of 2025 — S.1582, 119th Congress (Public Law 119–27): federal framework for payment stablecoin issuers
• The Money Laundering Regulations 2017, regulation 39: reliance on customer due diligence by a supervised person

📎 Need the full picture? Request our cross-border business banking file (rails, fees, onboarding timelines) via the form below — we email it the same day.