Daya Raises $2.4M to Build Stablecoin Payment Stack for African Businesses

Daya, a stablecoin-native payments startup, has closed a $2.4 million pre-seed funding round to build cross-border transaction infrastructure for African businesses. The round was led by Hivemind Capital with participation from Lattice, Alliance, and Globelink, according to an announcement on June 24, 2026.

The startup addresses a persistent friction point in African commerce: the high cost and complexity of moving money across borders. Local currencies in many African nations remain volatile, and traditional remittance corridors charge fees exceeding 5-10 percent of transaction value. Daya uses stablecoins as the settlement rail, allowing businesses to transact without exposure to currency swings or the overhead of legacy payment networks.

The company's announcement materials frame the opportunity deliberately: "Daya's funding and growth highlight the potential for fintech innovation to transform cross-border transactions in Africa, despite regulatory challenges." This framing acknowledges rather than ignores the regulatory headwinds ahead.

African central banks have grown increasingly cautious about stablecoin adoption. Regulators in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and other major markets have expressed concern that stablecoins could undermine monetary policy or displace local currencies. Some have imposed restrictions on crypto trading altogether. Daya will need to navigate a patchwork of national rules, each with its own stance on digital assets and capital controls.

The startup's strategy appears to be building infrastructure that works within those constraints rather than around them. By focusing on business-to-business payments rather than consumer remittances, Daya may sidestep some of the regulatory sensitivity around currency substitution. Commercial entities moving goods across borders have fewer alternatives than individuals sending money home, which could make the value proposition harder for regulators to block.

Daya faces entrenched competition from mobile money networks like M-Pesa in Kenya, which have spent years building regulatory relationships and user trust. These platforms already process billions in transactions annually and have the compliance frameworks in place that Daya will need to build from scratch. The advantage Daya brings is speed and lower cost through stablecoins, but that advantage only matters if regulators allow it.

The funding round reflects investor confidence that the regulatory environment, while challenging, is not immovable. Hivemind Capital and the other backers are betting that African regulators will eventually distinguish between stablecoins backed by reserves and more speculative crypto assets. They're also betting that the efficiency gains from blockchain-based settlement will eventually outweigh central banks' initial skepticism.

What remains unclear is which stablecoins Daya will support and how it will handle the fact that different African nations may approve different assets. USDC, USDT, and other dollar-denominated stablecoins are already widely used in crypto markets, but they don't have explicit regulatory approval in most African jurisdictions. Building a compliant payment stack may require Daya to work with central bank digital currencies or locally-issued stablecoins, which are still in early pilot phases across the continent.

Daya's raise coincides with broader momentum in fintech innovation across Africa. Startups in the region have raised record amounts of venture capital in recent years, even as crypto regulation tightens globally. Daya's bet is that stablecoins represent the next frontier for financial inclusion, but only if founders can navigate the regulatory minefield without alienating the policymakers whose approval they ultimately need.