There’s a particular kind of founder who builds not because they spotted a market gap on a slide deck, but because they lived the problem themselves — and couldn’t stop thinking about it. Gabriel Ferraz and Alec Erasmus, co-founders of CREEM, are exactly that kind of builder.

Gabriel’s path to Tallinn, Estonia reads like a map of the modern internet economy: he left Computer Science studies in Brazil to dive headfirst into crypto during its earliest days, founded Brazil’s first crypto-focused development agency, and spent years moving through fintech and financial markets across London, Berlin, and Stockholm. Alec, his co-founder and CTO, came from the same blockchain and crypto world — two engineers who understood, from the inside, just how broken global payments infrastructure was for small software teams.

What they built together is CREEM: a Merchant of Record platform that quietly handles everything a software founder dreads — tax compliance across 30+ jurisdictions, currency conversion, subscriptions, payouts, affiliate programs — so that a two-person team building an AI tool can simply get paid, without needing a finance department. The product is elegant in its ambition: one integration, sell anywhere.

They recently crossed $2M in ARR with fewer than five full-time employees. We sat down with Gabriel to understand how they got there — and where the wave is going next.

1. Tell us about yourself / your co-founder(s).

I’m Gabriel Ferraz, Co-Founder & CEO of CREEM.I’m a product engineer turned CEO, based in Tallinn, Estonia. I built CREEM because I lived the problem firsthand: selling software globally is a nightmare of tax compliance, currency handling, and regulatory overhead. My path here wasn’t traditional. I left Computer Science studies to dive into crypto during its early stages, founding Brazil’s first crypto-focused development agency. That led to Fintech and financial markets: Forex, Commodities, Ethereum identity infrastructure, and crypto payments. From Technical Leadership to Product Direction, across London, Berlin, Stockholm, and now Estonia.

2. Who are your target customers, and what problem do you address for them?

Our core customers are indie hackers, bootstrapped founders, and small software teams selling globally, particularly AI tool builders and SaaS creators.

Selling software across borders means dealing with tax collection in 30+ jurisdictions, VAT/sales tax compliance, currency conversion, and local payment methods. A two-person team building an AI tool shouldn’t need a finance department to get paid. Most founders either ignore compliance (risky) or spend weeks integrating Stripe + tax engines + billing tools (slow).

CREEM handles all of it as a single platform: payments, global tax compliance, subscriptions, revenue splits, affiliate programs, and payouts. Founders integrate once and sell anywhere.

3. What is your product / solution, who do you compete with, and what is your USP?

CREEM is a Merchant of Record (MoR) for software companies. We sit between the customer and the merchant, becoming the legal seller of record. This means we handle tax collection, remittance, compliance, invoicing, and payouts so founders don’t have to.

Our USP: we’re built for the new wave of software builders. Programmatic revenue splits that nobody else offers natively. Founder-friendly pricing (3.9% + $0.40, first $1K fee-free). And we’re increasingly becoming the go-to platform where AI builders monetize.

4. What is your current stage and traction, and how can our network help you in the next 6-12 months?

How the network can help: introductions to fintech-adjacent partners (payment infrastructure, banking APIs, compliance tools), connections to potential enterprise merchants expanding into global markets. We have just announced that we have crossed 2M in ARR with a <5 FTEs team.

5. How do you go to market? How are banks or insurers working with you (or can work with you)?

On banks/insurers: we don’t work with them directly today, but there’s a clear opportunity. Banks serving SME/startup clients could embed CREEM as a value-add for their digital-native business customers needing global infrastructure.

6. Any relevant industry trends or market shifts we should be watching?

Two big ones:

• AI tool explosion: millions of people are now building apps with Cursor, Lovable, Bolt, and similar tools. Product Hunt created a dedicated category. Building is solved, monetization isn’t. Every one of these apps needs payment infrastructure, and most builders have zero fintech knowledge. This is our fastest-growing segment.
• Global tax compliance tightening: more jurisdictions are implementing digital services taxes and marketplace facilitator rules. The regulatory burden on small software sellers is only increasing, making MoR solutions more essential, not less.

7. What’s on your bookshelf or podcast app? Your favourite place for a coffee or a drink?

CREEM’s story is, in many ways, a mirror of the moment we’re in: a tiny team, a clear-eyed read on where the industry is heading, and the discipline to build infrastructure rather than chase hype. Gabriel and Alec aren’t just solving a payments problem — they’re quietly becoming the financial backbone for the next generation of software builders.

Whether you’re an indie hacker, a fintech investor, or simply someone watching the AI tools explosion unfold in real time, this is a company worth keeping on your radar. The complexity of selling software globally isn’t going away — if anything, it’s accelerating. And CREEM is betting that the founders who need to navigate it will choose simplicity over suffering.

We’ll be watching.