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Daya, a Lagos-based FinTech startup building financial infrastructure for Africans moving money across borders, has raised $2.4 million in a pre-Seed funding round led by Hivemind Capital. The round also attracted participation from Alliance, Lattice, Globelink Holding, and Aptos Foundation.
The company said the funding will support its efforts to build what it describes as the financial operating layer for African businesses and individuals, enabling users to collect payments locally, convert currencies efficiently, and settle transactions globally through a single platform.
Founded in 2025 by Aleph L and Paul Joe, Daya is developing a platform that combines virtual USD accounts, global payments, payment cards, foreign exchange services, and other financial tools into a single application. The company aims to simplify international transactions for businesses, freelancers, and consumers who regularly move money across borders.
The startup’s founding team previously built Helicarrier, one of Nigeria’s earliest crypto remittance platforms, and brings experience from major technology and FinTech companies.
“My first real introduction to crypto was in 2014. I had just started working at Microsoft in Seattle and used Bitcoin to send money back home to family in Lagos, Nigeria. It was a much better experience than Western Union, but it was a painful and convoluted p2p process built for developers and nerds, not for my parents,” co-founder and CEO Aleph L wrote on LinkedIn.
He added that Daya represents the culmination of years spent working on the problem of cross-border money movement. “From Microsoft to Helicarrier (YC S18) to Circle, Daya is the culmination of a decade of experience trying to tackle this problem.”
Daya’s long-term vision is rooted in using stablecoin infrastructure to connect African businesses and consumers to global financial markets more efficiently.
Hivemind Capital, a venture firm focused on digital asset and blockchain infrastructure opportunities, highlighted the structural inefficiencies that continue to affect cross-border commerce across the continent. In its investment thesis, the firm said more than 80% of intra-African cross-border payments are settled in US dollars or euros, while African businesses pay transaction fees that are significantly higher than global averages.
It also pointed to broader market trends supporting the opportunity, noting that smartphone penetration in Africa is expected to reach 87% by 2030, crypto adoption has increased substantially since 2021, and the fintech sector is projected to grow rapidly through the end of the decade.
“We invest in builders enabling the global financial system to run on blockchain rails. Daya is the gateway transforming Africa’s underserved market into a global economic hub,” said Kayla Phillips, Senior Venture Principal at Hivemind.
Daya said it is building products that abstract away the complexity of international banking and dollar-based payment rails. As Aleph explained, “Daya tackles this problem, abstracting all the nuances of USD-rails and giving consumers and businesses instant, affordable and reliable connection to the global financial infra.”
“The mission of Daya is to open Africa to global financial markets, and stablecoins are going to be at the forefront of it,” Aleph wrote. “For the first time, we have internet-native dollars that can move across borders with the speed, cost, and programmability of software. That changes what is possible for African businesses.”
