Daya raises $2.4 million as stablecoin payments in Middle East and Africa gain momentum

Nigerian stablecoin payments startup Daya has raised $2.4 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed round to expand its cross-border stablecoin payment infrastructure for African businesses, as investor interest grows around stablecoins as a practical settlement rail rather than just a crypto trading tool.

The round was led by Hivemind Capital, with participation from Lattice Fund, Alliance DAO, Aptos Foundation and Singapore-based Globelink Investment.

Founded in October 2025 by Tomiwa “Aleph” Lasebikan and Paul Joe, Daya is building infrastructure that allows businesses to receive dollar payments, hold treasury balances in stablecoins, convert between currencies and move money internationally through a mix of regulated banking partners and blockchain settlement.

The raise comes shortly after Daya joined forces with HashKey MENA and Aptos Foundation to pilot a regulated stablecoin payment corridor linking Africa and the Middle East. That partnership is central to Daya’s regional story, positioning the company as the African infrastructure partner in a corridor designed to help businesses settle cross-border payments faster and with fewer foreign exchange bottlenecks.

Under the pilot, HashKey MENA provides regulated AED, USD and multi-currency fiat-to-stablecoin on- and off-ramps from the UAE side, while Daya supports African payment flows, including Nigerian Naira and other local currency rails. Aptos provides the blockchain settlement layer through its Layer 1 network.

The corridor is designed for business-to-business payments. Companies would be able to convert local currency into stablecoins at one end of the corridor, settle across blockchain rails, and receive fiat at the destination. The model brings together traditional payment tools such as bank wires, SWIFT, virtual accounts and APIs with regulated digital asset infrastructure.

For MENA, the partnership gives HashKey a route into African payment demand through Daya’s local infrastructure. For Daya, it connects African businesses to HashKey’s Asia Connect network, which spans markets including Hong Kong, the Philippines, Vietnam and the UAE.

Stablecoins are becoming Africa’s payment rail

Daya’s fundraise lands at a time when stablecoins are becoming one of the most important crypto use cases in Africa. Businesses use dollar-pegged assets such as USDT and USDC to access dollar liquidity, hedge against currency volatility and pay suppliers across borders without waiting days for correspondent banking routes to clear.

Nigeria remains one of the continent’s biggest stablecoin markets. The country has consistently ranked among the world’s leading crypto adoption markets, while businesses and consumers have turned to digital dollars as the naira weakened, inflation rose and access to foreign exchange became more constrained.

From crypto speculation to business infrastructure

The bigger shift is that stablecoins are moving beyond exchanges and retail trading into the plumbing of payments, treasury and international commerce. That is where startups like Daya are trying to build: not consumer wallets, but operating systems for companies that need to collect, convert, hold and send money across multiple markets.

Daya’s platform gives businesses access to virtual US dollar, Hong Kong dollar and Chinese yuan accounts, stablecoin settlement, local currency conversion and payment APIs. The idea is to replace the patchwork of banks, FX desks, OTC brokers, crypto ramps and spreadsheets that many African companies still use to manage cross-border payments.

Why the HashKey MENA link matters

The HashKey MENA partnership is important because cross-border payments are not only a technology problem. They are also a regulation, liquidity and access problem. HashKey MENA is licensed in Dubai and is providing compliant fiat-to-stablecoin conversion for the Middle East side of the corridor, while Daya brings African local currency connectivity and smart routing.

That combination could matter for exporters, importers, fintechs and multinational companies that move money between African markets and the Gulf. Instead of relying only on traditional correspondent banking networks, businesses could eventually access a corridor where fiat and stablecoins move through regulated nodes at both ends.

The pilot is still early, but it points to a larger trend: MENA is becoming a bridge for crypto infrastructure into African markets, while African fintechs are becoming key distribution partners for blockchain networks and digital asset platforms looking for real payment volume.

Investors are backing the rails

Daya’s funding reflects investor conviction that the next phase of African fintech will be more about infrastructure than consumer crypto speculation. The startup graduated from Alliance DAO’s ALL15 accelerator programme and is now positioned alongside other companies using stablecoins to solve cross-border payment and treasury problems.

“The round was oversubscribed,” Lasebikan told TechCabal. “Right now, we’re heads down focused on building and shipping for our users and delivering on the promises we made to our investors and early backers.”

Lasebikan said Daya has recorded more than 40% month-on-month growth during 2026 as businesses adopt the platform for treasury management and international settlements. The company did not disclose customer numbers.

“We’re focused on iterating with our products and continuing to learn,” Lasebikan told TechCabal. “We already partner with a core group of businesses and are helping them simplify their cross-border payments and treasury processes. The pre-seed enables us to learn faster and serve our users more broadly.”

What comes next

Daya said it will use the funding to expand payment corridors, strengthen compliance capabilities and deepen partnerships with local and international financial institutions. The company’s goal is to build a financial operating layer for African businesses that move money across borders.

If the HashKey MENA corridor works, Daya’s story could become bigger than a pre-seed raise. It could show how African stablecoin demand, UAE-regulated digital asset infrastructure and blockchain settlement networks come together to create new payment routes between two fast-growing regions.