Fintech infrastructure for stablecoin payments in emerging markets
August 26 at 09:50 · $0.127 total
Here are 10 early-stage, lesser-known companies building fintech infrastructure for stablecoin payments in emerging markets (EMs), followed by two white-space gaps in the market.
1. Kotani Pay — An API that connects blockchain networks directly to local mobile money wallets across Africa. Why it fits: Seed stage; strong traction solving the critical "last-mile" distribution problem by allowing dApps and fintechs to off-ramp stablecoins directly into ubiquitous mobile money accounts like M-Pesa.
2. Koywe — A B2B API providing local fiat-to-crypto on/off ramps across Latin America. Why it fits: Early stage; deep integration with local, instant payment rails (like PIX in Brazil and SPEI in Mexico) makes them a highly localized, capital-efficient infrastructure layer for LatAm stablecoin adoption.
3. Mural — A B2B API and platform for managing cross-border treasury and vendor payouts using stablecoins. Why it fits: Seed stage (backed by Galaxy and DCG); strong signal in helping LatAm-focused startups and global businesses bypass SWIFT to pay EM contractors and vendors instantly via USDC.
4. Poko — A payment gateway that aggregates local EM payment methods for seamless stablecoin purchasing. Why it fits: Seed stage (YC alumni); highly focused on Southeast Asia and LatAm, offering a direct fiat-to-stablecoin checkout experience that Web3 wallets and dApps can embed with a few lines of code.
5. Fonbnk — Infrastructure that converts prepaid mobile phone airtime into stablecoins. Why it fits: Seed stage; highly innovative approach to unbanked liquidity, turning the ubiquitous EM airtime system—which already acts as a pseudo-currency in Africa—into a decentralized fiat on-ramp.
6. Felix Pago — A B2B2C API that enables US-to-LatAm remittances via WhatsApp using stablecoins on the backend. Why it fits: Seed stage; excellent traction leveraging a familiar, low-friction UX (WhatsApp) while using crypto rails to settle instantly in local fiat, abstracting the blockchain entirely from the end user.
7. Accrue — Agent-driven stablecoin infrastructure for cross-border African payments. Why it fits: Early stage; strong traction in intra-Africa trade, allowing local fintechs to embed stablecoin-backed cross-border transfers so users can send money across borders without ever knowing they are using crypto.
8. Paychant — A non-custodial cryptocurrency payment gateway specifically designed for African businesses. Why it fits: Pre-seed/Seed; directly addresses merchant acceptance in EMs by allowing local businesses to accept stablecoins from global customers and settle instantly in their local fiat currency.
9. Onboard — API infrastructure and wallet for peer-to-peer stablecoin on/off ramps (built by Nestcoin). Why it fits: Seed stage; strong signal from their strategic pivot to focus purely on stablecoin utility, utilizing a decentralized network of local merchants to route fiat-to-stablecoin transactions in Africa.
10. Sling Money — A fiat-to-stablecoin transfer platform built on Solana to enable instant global micro-transactions. Why it fits: Seed stage (backed by Ribbit Capital); massive signal from top-tier fintech investors. While global, their infrastructure is heavily targeted at making stablecoin transfers as easy as Venmo for EM users facing currency devaluation.
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2 Most Interesting White-Space Gaps
1. B2B Merchant Settlement for Traditional E-commerce (The "Stripe for EM Web3") While there is abundant infrastructure for remittances, freelancer payouts, and on/off ramps, there is a distinct lack of plug-and-play e-commerce integrations (e.g., Shopify/WooCommerce plugins) tailored for EM merchants. There is a massive gap for an API that allows a merchant in Nigeria or Argentina to accept global stablecoin payments, automatically hedge against FX risk, and settle instantly in local fiat without requiring the merchant to manage a corporate crypto treasury.
2. Stablecoin Cash-Flow Underwriting & Credit APIs Currently, stablecoin infrastructure in EMs is almost entirely focused on the movement of money (payments and remittances). There is a glaring white space for infrastructure that analyzes these on-chain stablecoin payment flows to underwrite micro-loans or working capital for EM merchants. An API that allows fintechs to offer "revenue-based financing" backed by a merchant's historical stablecoin transaction data remains largely unbuilt.
- Conduit — Provides APIs for businesses to move money internationally using stablecoins and local fiat rails, with an emphasis on emerging-market corridors. Why it fits: Early-stage infrastructure company that raised a publicly disclosed seed round and has positioned itself as a developer layer for stablecoin cross-border payments.
- Mural Pay — Enables B2B payments and treasury transfers across Latin America using stablecoins, including invoicing, settlement, and local-currency payouts. Why it fits: Seed-stage company with disclosed venture backing and an explicit focus on reducing friction in Latin American cross-border commerce.
- Juicyway — Uses stablecoins to provide Nigerian businesses with liquidity and faster settlement for international payments. Why it fits: Young Nigerian fintech with a publicly reported seed round and strong exposure to one of the most active stablecoin markets in Africa.
- Kotani Pay — Offers APIs that convert digital assets, including stablecoins, into local African currencies and mobile-money payments. Why it fits: Early infrastructure provider focused on the difficult last-mile connection between blockchain money and African payment networks.
- Yellow Card — Provides African consumers and businesses with stablecoin trading, custody, treasury, and payment access across multiple local markets. Why it fits: One of the strongest traction signals in the category: substantial venture funding, broad geographic coverage, and institutional/business products beyond retail exchange.
- Verto — Provides cross-border accounts, FX, payouts, and stablecoin-enabled settlement for businesses operating across Africa and other emerging markets. Why it fits: Venture-backed scale-up building payment infrastructure around hard-to-access currencies and corridors, rather than only offering a consumer crypto wallet.
- Sphere — Builds stablecoin payment and payout APIs for companies sending and receiving money internationally, including emerging-market use cases. Why it fits: Early-stage company with a disclosed seed financing and a product oriented toward merchant settlement, treasury, and payouts.
- Bitso Business — Offers institutional APIs and settlement services for cross-border payments in Latin America, using crypto and stablecoins to connect local currencies. Why it fits: Bitso’s established exchange liquidity and regional footprint provide a meaningful distribution and traction signal, while its B2B unit targets payment infrastructure directly.
- Felix Pago — Uses WhatsApp and stablecoin rails to facilitate remittances into Latin America, initially focusing on Mexico and Spanish-speaking corridors. Why it fits: Early venture-backed remittance company with product-market evidence in a large, high-cost payments corridor and a stablecoin-based back end.
- Canza Finance — Builds African financial infrastructure for FX, remittances, and local payments, using blockchain and stablecoins to connect fragmented markets. Why it fits: Early-stage, venture-backed company focused on African liquidity and settlement problems, with a particularly relevant Nigeria-centered operating base.
White-space gaps noticed
- Stablecoin-to-local-payment orchestration for smaller emerging markets: Much of the activity is concentrated in Nigeria, Kenya, Mexico, and Brazil; there is still limited infrastructure for reliable payouts into smaller African, South Asian, and Southeast Asian markets, especially mobile money and bank interoperability.
- Compliance, risk, and treasury tooling for regulated businesses: The market has many transaction rails and wallets, but fewer neutral platforms handling KYB/KYC, sanctions screening, stablecoin risk, accounting, liquidity management, and audit trails across multiple jurisdictions.