Nigerian fintech Daya raises $2.4 million to power stablecoin cross-border payments for African businesses

Lagos-based startup Daya, founded in October 2025 by Tomiwa Lasebikan and Paul Joe, raised a $2.4 million pre-seed round led by Hivemind Capital, with participation from Lattice Fund, Alliance DAO, Aptos Foundation, and Globelink Investment. The round was oversubscribed.

Daya's platform lets businesses receive payments via dollar-denominated accounts, settle in stablecoins, and move funds across borders using a mix of regulated banking partners and blockchain settlement rails, eliminating the need for correspondent banks, FX desks, and manual payment flows.

Daya reports over 40% month-on-month growth in 2026 and has piloted a stablecoin settlement corridor between Africa and the Middle East with Aptos Foundation and Dubai-based HashKey MENA. The funding will go toward expanding payment corridors, compliance infrastructure, and financial institution partnerships.

The oversubscription of Daya's pre-seed round means that global crypto-native investors, not just traditional African fintech VCs, are now actively backing Nigerian stablecoin infrastructure plays, a meaningful shift in where conviction capital is flowing.

For Nigerian businesses currently managing cross-border payments through a patchwork of domiciliary accounts, OTC desks, and manual FX processes, platforms like Daya represent a direct operational alternative that could reduce settlement delays and FX costs as these corridors mature.

Trade flows between Nigeria and Gulf markets are significant, and a stablecoin rail that supports USD, HKD, and CNY accounts could give Nigerian importers and exporters a faster, cheaper settlement option than the current correspondent banking route.

It is too early to know whether Daya will achieve the scale needed to challenge established players like Juicyway or Yellow Card. However, watch whether SEC Nigeria's digital asset framework creates a compliance pathway that allows stablecoin settlement infrastructure to operate at full scale domestically.