How Lumanu Works

Lumanu is built for platforms running creator-based campaigns that need to support payments.

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Core Principle
You decide who gets paid, how much, and when. Lumanu takes care of the how. We move and hold the money – in a way that is compliant, auditable, and scalable across many brands and vendors, and compatible with how their finance teams already work.

As platforms scale, payments stop being a background concern and start intersecting with:

Customer finance teams (often at large brands)
Auditability and approvals
Compliance, tax, and vendor onboarding
Increasingly opinionated funding workflows

At that point, payments stop being a feature and start becoming operational risk. Lumanu exists to handle payments without forcing your platform to become the system of record for money, while still giving you control over how payments are initiated and managed.

The Lumanu Mental Model

Lumanu introduces a small set of primitives that mirror how money already moves through real organizations. Once these primitives are understood, the model itself is straightforward.

A workspace represents a distinct financial entity.

In practice, workspaces are often 1:1 with the tenants, clients, or brands your platform already supports.

Each workspace has:

Its own balance and ledger
Its own approvals and funding lifecycle
A dedicated bank account and routing number provided by Lumanu

This external addressability is crucial. A customer's finance team can:

Receive a funding invoice
Pay it from their existing bank systems
Reconcile it using the same workflows they already use for other vendors

Lumanu's workspaces are designed to integrate cleanly with how finance teams already operate.

Funding Invoices and Deposits

When a workspace needs funds:

A funding invoice is created for a specific amount
The invoice is paid externally (ACH, wire, etc.)
Funds arrive in the workspace's dedicated bank account
Once recognized, the workspace balance increases and payables can be paid

This structure provides:

Clear traceability between invoices, deposits, and balances
Strong auditability for customer finance teams
Clean separation between platform logic and customer funds

The dedicated account and routing number are a core interface, enabling Lumanu to fit directly into existing finance operations.

Funding Flows

Lumanu supports multiple funding patterns using the same primitives.

Money is deposited into the workspace first, and payables draw down from the available balance.

This is common when:

Budgets are known and funds available in advance
Customers want to ensure their vendors are paid quickly without finance delays
Customers want predictable funding cycles

Lumanu supports using both flows in the same workspace. In both cases, funding remains explicit and auditable.

Why This Model Exists

Lumanu's model is designed to be compatible with how money already flows through large organizations.

Rather than optimizing solely for speed of first payout, Lumanu optimizes for:

Correctness
Auditability
Compatibility with customer finance workflows

Once the separation between payables and funding is understood, the core model is simple:

Define who should be paid and for what services/deliverables
Fund the workspace
Let Lumanu handle execution, compliance, and vendor payouts

How Lumanu Fits Alongside Your Product

Most platforms already have a way to move money.

The harder challenge is supporting:

customers with their own funding and approval workflows,
finance teams that require invoices and reconciliation,
and vendors who expect compliant, flexible, and transparent payments.

Lumanu is designed to fill this gap:

Your platform remains the source of truth for campaigns and payment decisions,
Lumanu becomes the system that moves and holds money in a way your customers already understand and trust.

Your platform can be in the money flow — or not:

① Platform is in the money flow

Brand  ──▶  Platform  ──▶  Lumanu  ──▶  Creators

Brand pays Platform
Platform funds Lumanu
Platform users add & approve payments in Lumanu or via CSV/API
Lumanu handles vendor onboarding, compliance, and pays creators

② Brands fund Lumanu directly

Brand  ──▶  Lumanu  ──▶  Creators
              ▲
           Platform (adds & approves payments)

Brand funds their Lumanu wallet
Platform is not in the money flow
Platform users add & approve payments in Lumanu or via CSV/API
Lumanu handles vendor onboarding, compliance, and pays creators

What To Do Next

If this model resonates, the next step is not just reviewing API endpoints.

Lumanu works best when:

These primitives are mapped intentionally to your existing product concepts
Funding flows align with how your customers already operate
Integration decisions are made with a clear understanding of responsibility boundaries

Our team regularly works with platform partners to help:

Map Lumanu's model to existing architectures
Identify where Lumanu replaces or complements current payment systems
Design an integration approach that makes sense now and as you scale