Checker has announced it has raised $8 million in funding to accelerate the adoption of stablecoin-powered financial services across Africa and other emerging markets.
The round was led by Al Mada Ventures, the investment arm of a Moroccan sovereign wealth group and parent of Attijariwafa Bank. Additional investors include Galaxy Ventures and Framework Ventures, alongside strategic backing from DFS Lab, Bitso, Airtm, Onigiri Capital, SNZ Capital, and Velocity Capital.
The funding round also drew participation from prominent figures in Africa’s tech ecosystem, including Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, former Onafriq VP Gwera Kiwana, and Juicyway co-founder Justin Ziegler, as well as individuals from global fintech companies like Stripe and Tala.
According to Omar Laalej, the investment was driven by a clear gap in the stablecoin ecosystem. “The primary barrier to scalability for the stablecoin industry is access to liquidity at scale, particularly the friction in fiat on-ramps and off-ramps. Checker addresses this with a novel orchestration layer that organizes fragmented stablecoin liquidity into a programmable, compliant network,” he said.
Africa continues to emerge as a global leader in digital asset adoption, with countries like Nigeria ranking among the highest in cryptocurrency usage, while markets such as Kenya and South Africa are introducing regulatory clarity through Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) frameworks. However, financial institutions across the continent still face challenges including fragmented payment rails, high correspondent banking costs, and foreign exchange volatility.
Checker aims to solve this by providing a unified infrastructure layer that connects financial institutions to global liquidity. Through a single API, the platform enables banks and neobanks to access stablecoin liquidity, manage treasury operations, facilitate cross-border payments, and unlock credit solutions.
“We’re building the network-of-networks infrastructure for the stablecoin era,” said Isaac Umejiaku. “With one integration, we connect African financial institutions to multiple payment providers and banks globally, dramatically reducing settlement times and costs.”
Founded by Jack Chong and Justin McMahan, the company is positioning itself as critical infrastructure for modern financial services. Over the past year, Checker has onboarded institutional clients such as Rail (acquired by Ripple), Braza Bank, and Belo, scaling to $3 billion in total processing volume—approximately 1% of global B2B stablecoin payments.
The company’s network now supports 75 global currencies and spans key African markets including Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, and Francophone West Africa.
With the new funding, Checker plans to expand its global payments coverage, reduce reliance on correspondent banking systems and introduce embedded borrowing and lending capabilities. It is also exploring the rollout of AI-powered agents for treasury management, back-office automation and predictive analytics.
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