Kuaishou’s all-female Beijing team powers Brazil payment breakthrough
Published: Feb 2026
Judges’ Choice
Overall Winner
Kuaishou Technology
Cui Jiaqi
Treasurer
Wei Qiaoling
Technical Engineer
Kuaishou Technology
Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Beijing, Kuaishou Technology is a Chinese investment holding company that operates social media platforms, primarily focused on short videos and live streaming.
The challenge
While Kuaishou has expanded globally into key markets Brazil, South-East Asia and the Middle East, Brazil stands out as a top market.
Kuaishou’s international strategy emphasises user acquisition through high-frequency, micro-value incentive payouts. These payouts are funded via a Singapore offshore entity, which supports multi-country FX and payment operations, including Brazil. While this offshore model enabled rapid market entry, scaling in Brazil surfaced significant structural challenges. The company’s retention-driven model relies on ultra-high-frequency B2C payouts. But in Brazil, this model faced two critical roadblocks, cost and stability.
By late 2023, monthly payout volumes had scaled into the millions. Internal reports flagged rising costs as a threat to Brazil’s unit economics, and payout failures were starting to impact user retention. The offshore model wasn’t designed for Brazil’s unique requirements. Relying on international PSPs exposed Kuaishou to inefficiencies at both FX conversion and local disbursement stages. A redesign was essential to integrate onshore FX and access PIX and bank transfer networks for better cost and reliability. Kuaishou’s treasury, compliance, product and engineering teams were under increasing pressure to stabilise operations and contain costs while ensuring compliance and seamless user payouts.
A bespoke offshore-to-onshore payout flow was critical to sustain Brazil’s growth. The company needed to:
Leverage the offshore entity for FX optimisation.
Integrate Brazil’s onshore infrastructure for cost-effective, real-time payouts.
Support PIX and bank transfers to align with user habits.
Ensure compliance with Brazil’s evolving FX regulations.
This redesign became a strategic imperative to unlock scalable, sustainable micro-payouts in Brazil.
The solution
At the end of 2023, Brazil’s Central Bank introduced new regulations for Instituição de Pagamento Facilitadora (IPF), enabling offshore entities to partner with IPF providers for local disbursements. Seizing this opportunity, Kuaishou worked closely with Citi to explore a pioneering solution. The bank would manage offshore FX conversion, while the IPF entity would execute local payouts via PIX and bank transfers.
This collaboration demanded innovation at every step. As one of the earliest companies to experiment with IPF, Kuaishou proposed and validated an entirely new payout model at a time when there were no proven precedents. Together with Citi, it navigated ambiguous regulatory frameworks, designed compliant funding and information flows, and assessed cost efficiency and technical feasibility. Implementation presented further challenges. The IPF’s API introduced novel requirements, and its unique funding structure disrupted existing billing and top-up cycles, creating reconciliation complexities.
Kuaishou organised twice-weekly cross-border workshops, bringing together teams across China and Brazil. These sessions helped resolve legal ambiguities, bridge time-zone and cultural gaps, and drove iterative problem solving in a highly uncertain environment. The project successfully completed integration and went live in the middle of 2025.
Best practice and innovation
The treasury team is an all-female group with an average age of just 26, embodying both diversity and a new generation of leadership in global finance. Most of the team joined Kuaishou fresh out of university and grew with the company to take on the complex responsibilities of supporting a business with millions of international users.
This project required more than technical skill; it demanded intense cross-team coordination.
“As the team lead and project PMO, I worked to keep all teams moving in sync, driving alignment and problem-solving even in moments of uncertainty,” comments Cui Jiaqi, Treasurer.
Key benefits
Cost savings.
Process efficiencies.
Return on investment.
Increased automation.
Risk mitigated.
Errors reduced.
Manual intervention reduced.
Increased system connectivity.
Improved key performance indicator (KPI) metrics.
This nomination was submitted and indeed shortlisted in our Harnessing the Power of Technology and Best Payment Solution categories. Our judges wish to recognise as one of two Judges’ Choice awards for the solution in Brazil managed by the Beijing all-female treasury team with an average age of just 26.
The Adam Smith Awards Asia are the industry benchmark for best practice and innovation in corporate treasury. To find out more please visit treasurytoday.com/adam-smith-awards-asia
