The round, announced June 24, 2026, represents a significant step up from the $350,000 Daya received from US crypto accelerator Alliance DAO in 2025, less than a year after the company was founded in October 2025. Investor names for the new round were not disclosed at the time of publication. The startup was co-founded by Tomiwa "Aleph" Lasebikan, former co-founder and head of product at Y Combinator-backed crypto startup Helicarrier, and Paul Joe, a former crypto analyst at Web3 analytics firm Messari who also worked at Helicarrier and built StableStats, a stablecoin ecosystem directory.

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How the product works

Daya gives business customers a USD-denominated account through regulated US financial partners. When a payment comes in, the platform converts it to stablecoins (digital tokens pegged to the US dollar) and credits the customer's wallet. From there, businesses can hold the funds in dollars, send them internationally, or convert them to local currency such as Nigerian naira for direct bank withdrawal. Daya charges between 0.1% and 0.3% per transaction and sources foreign exchange rates from multiple over-the-counter traders rather than relying on a single provider.

That fee structure contrasts sharply with existing options. Sending $200 to sub-Saharan Africa costs an average of 7.9% through traditional channels, nearly double the global average of 4.5% and well above the 3% target set by the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In some corridors, such as South Africa to Zimbabwe, costs reach 12.7% to 15%. Stablecoin transfers, by comparison, typically cost between 0.5% and 1% of the amount sent.

The commercial stakes are substantial. The global B2B cross-border payment market stood at $31.7 trillion in 2024 and is projected to reach $47.8 trillion by 2032, making the cost differential between traditional and stablecoin-based rails an increasingly strategic concern for businesses operating across borders.

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Nigeria as the core market

Nigeria is the clearest test case for Daya's thesis. The country accounts for roughly 60% of stablecoin inflows into sub-Saharan Africa and received $92.1 billion in crypto-asset value in the year to June 2025, with stablecoins making up more than 65% of that total. The naira lost roughly half its value between 2023 and 2024, pushing businesses toward dollar-denominated alternatives for holding and transferring funds.

The regulatory environment is also shifting. The Central Bank of Nigeria's Payments System Vision 2028, a notable reversal from the CBN's blanket crypto ban in 2021, mentions stablecoins 68 times and proposes a regulated framework for their use within the national payments infrastructure. Nigeria's first regulated naira-backed stablecoin, cNGN, launched in early 2025 with ₦2.3 billion in circulation.

That momentum extends beyond Nigeria. Ethiopia has recorded 180% year-on-year growth in retail stablecoin activity, and Africa as a whole counts more than 54 million crypto users, reflecting a broader regional shift that aligns with Daya's stated pan-African ambitions.

"Africa is already a front-runner in stablecoin adoption," said Paul Joe, Daya's co-founder. "What's been missing is the regulated infrastructure and scalable liquidity to connect that demand to the rest of the world."

It is worth noting that Daya's product is aimed at businesses rather than individual consumers. With approximately 50% of Africa's population unbanked, the $2.4 million pre-seed primarily addresses a commercial rather than a retail financial inclusion gap.

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The Africa-Gulf corridor

Daya is building its first live settlement corridor between Africa and the Middle East in partnership with the Aptos Foundation (which serves as the underlying blockchain settlement layer) and HashKey MENA FZE, a Dubai-based firm licensed by the UAE's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority. The partnership, announced June 4, 2026, allows businesses to convert local currencies to stablecoins, settle transactions on the Aptos network, and receive local currency at the destination. HashKey MENA's regulatory licence provides a compliant fiat gateway on the Gulf side, a meaningful advantage in a region where many crypto corridors have previously operated in legal grey zones.

Aptos had previously partnered with Yellow Card, another African stablecoin infrastructure provider, in July 2025. Daya and Yellow Card appear to be operating separate corridors on the same settlement layer, and neither company nor Aptos has publicly addressed how those relationships interact.

"The world we're born into is one where communication across borders is incredibly fast. But sending money across borders is horrendous," said Tomiwa Lasebikan, Daya's co-founder.

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A crowded but consolidating market

Daya enters a competitive field. Yellow Card operates stablecoin infrastructure across 20 African countries. Juicyway and Conduit target similar B2B corridors on the continent. Globally, the acquisitions of Bridge by Stripe and BVNK by Mastercard signal that large financial institutions view stablecoin-based B2B payment rails as strategic infrastructure. Daya's stated differentiation is its multi-OTC sourcing model and its positioning as a full financial operating system covering accounts, payments, and foreign exchange rather than a single-corridor tool.

The fundraise lands during a surge of investor interest in African stablecoin infrastructure. Stablecoin-focused startups accounted for 70% of all African startup funding in May 2026, with $53 million raised across the sector that month. Globally, stablecoins processed $28 trillion in transactions in 2025 and the total stablecoin market cap has exceeded $300 billion.

One risk worth monitoring: the IMF warned in June 2026 that widespread USD-stablecoin adoption in Nigeria raises serious monetary policy questions. The Fund's report noted that "widespread use can resemble a digital form of dollarization" that weakens "domestic monetary policy transmission." Should regulators respond with new restrictions, the operating environment for platforms like Daya could change quickly. The immediate forward-looking milestone for the company is the live launch of the Africa-Gulf corridor built with Aptos and HashKey MENA, which will provide the first concrete measure of the platform's settlement performance.

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Investor names for the $2.4M pre-seed round had not been confirmed at the time of publication. Verse Press will update this article when that information becomes available.