Accept payments, automate tax and compliance, prevent fraud, and get paid all through Ethiopia's first Merchant of Record platform.
By combining intelligent automation with deep expertise across global payments, tax, compliance, fraud, and billing, we handle the entire transaction lifecycle. We continuously optimize your revenue performance, strip away operational overhead, and absorb liability so you can scale globally with total confidence.
Selling requires business registration, license, TIN, VAT and payment-gateway approval — a months-long maze that filters out almost every individual creator before the first sale.
VAT registration, TOT withholding, e-invoicing mandates and quarterly filings — a full-time job that gets digital sellers fined or shut down.
Refunds, complaints, fraud and delivery disputes land entirely on the seller, with no merchant of record standing behind the transaction — and buyers notice.
World-class products are built in Addis every week — and every week, they die at the checkout.
Every tax, payment, invoice and liability a global seller faces — absorbed into a single compliant entity, so you only do what you do best.
Chapa, Telebirr and CBE Birr in a single checkout — no gateway approvals, no merchant accounts, no registration maze of your own.
Every seller passes KYC/KYB and signs a supplier & licensing agreement. Transactions stay compliant because sellers are verified.
VAT (15%) and TOT (2%) calculated, invoiced and remitted automatically — with a compliant receipt or tax invoice for every transaction.
OpenPia appears as the merchant at checkout and issues every receipt and invoice — buyers contract with us, not you.
Customer complaints, refunds, fraud and delivery issues are absorbed and controlled by the merchant of record — never your team.
Revenue settles into OpenPia's registered account; you receive contractual payouts as a supplier or licensor on defined settlement schedules — no wallets, no P2P.
From software subscriptions to AI usage, digital services, and paid access — OpenPia supports any digital business, built around the way you sell online.
For web and mobile products that turn customer access into recurring revenue.
Sell monthly or annual access to your software through a recurring payment model.
Give customers a clear payment experience around their software plan.
Turn product sign-up into a straightforward purchase experience.
Keep your payment activity organized around the transactions your business generates.
Expand your customer base without turning payment operations into your next engineering project.
Connect payment with the digital product experience you're already building.
Your customers still pay with Chapa, Telebirr or CBE Birr — OpenPia becomes the merchant behind every sale: receipts, tax, compliance, refunds and billing, so your team only builds what it does best.
Every sale needs a legal seller at checkout — the one who collects the money, issues receipts, handles refunds and disputes, and carries the tax responsibility. That role is a Merchant of Record.
Doing it yourself means a foreign entity, gateway approval, and tax presence abroad. With OpenPia it's covered: customers still pay with Chapa, Telebirr or CBE Birr, while OpenPia is the seller of record behind the sale — and you settle in ETB.
Keep the payment methods your customers already use — Chapa, Telebirr or CBE Birr — while OpenPia handles the merchant side of every transaction.
Keep tax-related complexity away from your product team and let the MoR layer handle the operational responsibility around digital sales.
We take on the regulatory workflows associated with selling digital products so your team can keep moving without building that infrastructure yourself.
Add a layer of protection around your payments without assembling and maintaining an entire risk operation internally.
Manage recurring payments and the lifecycle around them without turning billing infrastructure into another product your team has to build.
Every transaction runs through OpenPia — the merchant of record.
Pass KYC/KYB and sign a supplier & licensing agreement — the legal setup that replaces registration, TIN and VAT hurdles.
Add OpenPia Checkout, payment links or webhooks to your product. Buyers see OpenPia as the merchant at checkout.
We collect via Chapa, Telebirr and CBE Birr, issue receipts, and handle tax, refunds and fraud — then settle your payouts as a supplier.
OpenPia is the merchant of record behind your checkout — one API for subscriptions, billing and transactions, while your customers still pay with Chapa, Telebirr or CBE Birr.
| Customer | Status | Amount | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dawit Tesfaye | Paid | ETB 48,500 | Aug 07 |
| Liya Getachew | Paid | ETB 21,200 | Aug 07 |
| Nahom Bekele | Pending | ETB 12,400 | Aug 06 |
POST /v1/transactions
{
"amount": 4500,
"currency": "ETB",
"customer": "Addis Creative"
}{
"id": "txn_01H8K9M3Q7",
"status": "recorded",
"merchant_of_record": "OpenPia"
}Predictable endpoints for your application.
Real-time events for every transaction.
A complete merchant checkout out of the box.
Build and test safely before going live.
OpenPia is the legal merchant at checkout. Buyers contract with OpenPia, receipts and invoices are issued by OpenPia, and refunds, disputes and delivery issues are OpenPia's responsibility — so sellers receive revenue without building payment, tax or legal infrastructure.
No. That's the point of the merchant-of-record model. You pass KYC/KYB as a verified seller and sign a supplier & licensing agreement — OpenPia holds the registration, TIN and VAT obligations.
Chapa, Telebirr and CBE Birr today. As regulations allow (NBE), international cards, PayPal and other methods will be added — bringing foreign revenue into Ethiopia through the same compliant pipeline.
Customers pay OpenPia, which settles into its registered business account. After commission, reserves, refunds, taxes and optional AI usage costs are deducted, you're paid as a supplier or licensor on defined settlement schedules — there are no payment wallets or P2P transfers.
Yes. AI-powered software can be reviewed like any other eligible digital product. OpenPia's role is the Merchant of Record transaction layer; your business remains responsible for the product, model providers, output quality and product-level support.
SaaS and app subscriptions, API and AI-agent usage, hosting or storage plans, courses and memberships, support packages, defined-deliverable services (design, editing, translation, development) and online consultations.
Pass verification, embed checkout and get paid built for Ethiopian creators and developers, from the inside.