The funding was first reported by The Block on May 12, 2026. Osero is characterised by its incubator as a stablecoin yield "neobank," a product category that aims to give retail and institutional users simplified access to yield on dollar-pegged assets without requiring deep familiarity with decentralized finance protocols.

No other investors in the round have been confirmed beyond lead investor Sky Ecosystem, and no Series label has been disclosed.

Sky Ecosystem, the protocol formerly known as MakerDAO, completed its rebrand in 2025 as part of founder Rune Christensen's multi-year restructuring plan called "Endgame." The protocol issues the USDS stablecoin and offers depositors a savings rate currently ranging between 3.75% and 4.5% APY through its sUSDS product. As of May 2026, USDS total supply stands at approximately $11.7 billion. The supply grew 86% through 2025, rising from $5.3 billion to $9.8 billion, before continuing to expand into early-to-mid 2026. Sky ranks fourth among all decentralized finance protocols by total value locked, at roughly $7.52 billion as of March 2026, and posted record gross revenue of $124 million in Q1 2026.

Osero's incubator, Stablewatch, occupies an unusually close position within the Sky ecosystem. Earlier in 2026, Stablewatch became a core contributor to Sky's Laniakea Project, which functions as the data, compliance, and risk layer for the USDS protocol. Laniakea includes two modules: Verify, which handles real-time NAV and risk monitoring of all Agent positions, and Settle, which provides auditable accounting under international standards.

Stablewatch's team brings institutional backgrounds spanning BNY Mellon, State Street Bank, Chatham Financial, ConsenSys, DeFiLlama, and OKX Wallet, a pedigree that helps explain Sky's selection of the firm as a core contributor and incubator partner. Stablewatch indexes more than $20 billion in onchain yield assets and currently tracks over 60 yield-bearing assets across protocols including Aave, Maple, Euler, Plasma, and USD.ai.

Readers should note that this pre-existing institutional relationship between Stablewatch and Sky means Osero's raise is not an arm's-length transaction. Sky is both the infrastructure provider and the lead investor for a project incubated by one of its own core contributors.

Osero enters a crowded but fast-growing segment. The total supply of yield-bearing stablecoins has exceeded $13 billion, roughly doubling over the past year, while 88 new yield-bearing stablecoins launched in 2025 alone. The broader stablecoin market has surpassed $310 billion in supply. In July 2025, the United States enacted the GENIUS Act, establishing the first federal framework for centralized payment stablecoins and providing a clearer regulatory foundation for yield-bearing dollar products operating in or targeting US-adjacent markets. A comparable recent raise: OpenTrade, a London-based firm that connects fintechs and neobanks to stablecoin yield through real-world assets, closed a $17 million round in early May 2026 led by Mercury Fund and Notion Capital, with participation from a16z Crypto.

At the time, OpenTrade reported over $200 million in total value locked and more than $250 million in annual transaction volume.

Osero has not disclosed equivalent traction figures, consistent with its status as a newly launched project. Stablewatch has listed Osero as "NEW" on its own analytics platform, and no independent onchain data or confirmed tokenomics were available at time of publication.

The product could carry particular weight in markets where access to dollar-denominated savings accounts is structurally limited. Sub-Saharan Africa recorded 414% growth in stablecoin transfer volume between mid-2025 and mid-2026, the region's strongest recorded performance on stablecoin transfer growth. Nigeria, ranked second worldwide for grassroots crypto adoption, received $92.1 billion in onchain value over the past year, with roughly 85% of transfers occurring at retail scale. Stablecoins account for approximately 43% of Sub-Saharan Africa's total crypto transaction volume, but the majority of those holdings sit in plain USDT or USDC and earn nothing. Regulatory progress is adding further commercial momentum across the continent: Kenya passed a Virtual Asset Service Provider bill in 2025, South Africa has approved 59 crypto licenses, and Ethiopia recorded 180% year-over-year growth in retail stablecoin transfers alongside a 30% birr devaluation in 2024, illustrating the demand for stable, yield-bearing dollar access in markets where local currencies are under pressure.

In South Asia and Southeast Asia, the growth picture is similarly compelling. The Central and South Asia and Oceania region posted 236% growth in stablecoin transfer volume over the same period. India ranks first globally on the 2026 Crypto Adoption Index, while Pakistan, ranked eighth, is a high-remittance economy with limited access to dollar savings products. Vietnam and the Philippines represent additional high-adoption markets in the region; the Philippines in particular has been identified as a market where the DeFi-native user experience of protocols such as Sky's sUSDS remains a significant barrier for non-technical users. Yield-bearing stablecoins currently offer 4% to 7% APY on USD-pegged assets, far above local savings rates in most of these markets. A simplified yield interface built on auditable infrastructure could lower the barrier to entry for non-technical users across these regions.

Sky's investment in Osero fits a broader pattern of incubation activity. The protocol also backs Obex, a Framework Ventures-supported incubator that raised $37 million and received authorization to deploy up to $2.5 billion in USDS reserves into real-world assets. Its first cohort includes Maple, Centrifuge, and Securitize, among others spanning credit, energy, housing, and AI infrastructure.

Parker Edwards of Framework Ventures, describing the Obex portfolio strategy, said the approach was about "moving beyond circular DeFi yield sources and toward high-quality yield from structured credit markets, fintech, energy infrastructure, AI CapEx, real estate, and other productive sectors."

Analysts note that Osero appears to address a different layer of that broader strategy: rather than generating new yield sources, its focus is on making existing yield infrastructure more accessible to retail and non-technical users.

Verse Press has reached out to Stablewatch and Osero for comment and will update this article when responses are received.