USD Invoice From Havana
Cuba's digital entrepreneurs sell code, design, and content to the world. Getting paid is the bottleneck.
Tim Parsa · Co-Founder & CCO, QvaPay · 7 July 2026 · 3 min read Subscribe
Erich García Cruz taught a generation of Cubans the internet economy on his YouTube channel, Bachecubano. Many of them now sell their work to clients abroad. They are the founders who will build Cuba's next economy, and most have never been paid the way their peers in Miami are.
Rafael builds online stores from Cienfuegos for clients in Texas and Ontario. He used to wait a week for his money and lose a slice of every invoice. Now he is paid into QvaPay and pays his designer in Santiago the same afternoon.
Illustrative example; not customers.
In our pending request for guidance, we have asked OFAC to confirm how the Cuban Assets Control Regulations apply to these entrepreneurs. The original 2023 request, since renewed and expanded by QvaPay, is published here: Independent Digital Entrepreneurs in Cuba ↗.
Airtm found product-market fit with freelancers in Venezuela whose PayPal dollars were trapped and whose bolívares melted by the day. Cuba’s freelancers have the same problem, plus a sanctions regime. That’s why QvaPay is built on U.S. compliance first.
Cuban talent billing the world in dollars, on U.S. rails, under U.S. law: the startup nation in miniature.
Payments to digital entrepreneurs let Cuban talent bill the world in dollars.
| Flow | How we grow it | U.S. tech meets Cuban talent |
|---|---|---|
| Payments to digital entrepreneurs Permitted for U.S. clients · §515.582, §515.340(b) · the freelancer's balance in Cuba: pending with OFAC | We onboard U.S. clients who contract independent Cuban freelancers; the freelancer’s own balance in Cuba is the part pending with OFAC. We market to Cuban freelancers and their U.S. clients. | Cuban coders, designers, and writers sell their skills to the world. |
The potential. Remittances into Cuba run an estimated $1.1–2B a year (2024; estimates vary). At the Dominican Republic’s rate per person, Cuba would receive about $9.8B, five to nine times today. That is the market QvaPay is built to serve.
| Market | Cuba today | Cuba at the Dominican Republic’s rate per person |
|---|---|---|
| Remittances received | $1.1–2B 2024 est., estimates vary | $9.8B DR total $11.9B (2025) |
A scenario, not a forecast. The Dominican Republic received $11.9B in remittances in 2025 across 11.4 million people, about $1,040 a person; at that rate Cuba’s 9.43 million people would receive about $9.8B a year, five to nine times today. Method and sources.
Many private activities are now formally allowed but still wait on implementing rules the government has not issued. On cubanew.com ↗
Sources
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