How Kottab Scales International Tuition Across Three Continents with XPay

An online education startup serving students in Australia, Canada, the UAE, and Egypt switches off PayPal for clearer reporting and proactive support.

At a glance: ~2 weeks From contract to first live transaction · 4 currencies Supported across the student base · Full visibility Every transaction and decline reason now exposed

The challenge

Kottab was previously running on PayPal, which couldn't give the team clear visibility into why payments failed. When a student's transaction was declined, the academy had no insight into the cause, and no path to recover that revenue. As a small team serving students across multiple countries, the lack of visibility had a real cost.

The solution

Kottab migrated to XPay's payment gateway in roughly two weeks, with hands-on support from a named XPay account manager. The academy now uses Payment Links to bill students in AUD, CAD, AED, and EGP. The XPay team has stayed hands-on with troubleshooting since, including stepping in directly when a bank froze a student's payment.

The results

The academy now sees every failed payment along with the reason for failure, something PayPal never exposed. Revenue is up, customer numbers have grown, and the founder reports that XPay's reporting dashboard gives her a clearer view of monthly performance than any previous system she's used.

Support that fixes problems before they become problems

When a bank flagged a student payment, XPay didn't just respond: they investigated, traced the issue, and gave Kottab specific instructions on what to tell the bank. That kind of proactive support is what the academy now expects when scaling internationally.

"The XPay team doesn't just tell me to check something, they go in and check it for me. That's huge when I'm running a business and not always at my laptop."

Founder, Kottab