HoneyCoin raises $4.9M to expand cross-border payments in Africa’s crowded fintech arena
When Nairobi-based HoneyCoin launched in 2020, its 19-year-old founder, David Nandwa, wasn’t simply chasing the crypto hype of the pandemic years. He was building what he calls “the operating system for money,” a financial stack that could merge blockchain rails with fiat infrastructure to make cross-border payments faster, compliant, and dramatically more cost-efficient. Five years later, the company has reportedly scaled to more than $150 million in monthly transaction volumes, serving 350 enterprise clients and millions of end users across four continents. Now, it has closed a $4.9 million seed round led by Flourish Ventures, with additional participation from Visa Ventures, TLcom Capital, Stellar Development Foundation, Lava, Musha Ventures, 4DX Ventures, and Antler.
The fresh capital will be used to expand HoneyCoin’s product suite, grow its team, and strengthen compliance functions as it doubles down on becoming Africa’s stablecoin-powered payments backbone. It is a crowded battlefield: giants like Flutterwave, Chipper Cash, and MFS Africa have already raised hundreds of millions of dollars to solve the same problem, often with mixed results. Flutterwave has faced regulatory roadblocks, Chipper Cash has experienced layoffs following valuation cuts, and MFS Africa is retooling its brand and integrations.
WORTH A READ:
Valuation dips in African startups (Part 1): Lori Systems, Kobo360’s fall from millions
HoneyCoin bets that by positioning itself not just as another connector of fragmented rails, but as a stablecoin liquidity engine wrapped in compliance and enterprise-grade APIs, it can outlast the volatility that has dogged some of its peers. “Since then, he’s built a licensed, profitable, and high-growth infrastructure platform powering nearly 300 financial institutions and processing billions in transactions annually,” said Flourish Ventures Principal Efayomi Carr, pointing to HoneyCoin’s traction since their first investment in 2021.
If this sounds bold, Nandwa embraces it. In his own words: “Just as Apple redefined computing and Visa transformed global commerce, we believe financial infrastructure is undergoing another once-in-a-generation shift.”
This is far from a modest comparison, yet one that captures how startups like HoneyCoin see themselves: not just as fintechs, but as system re-designers. The metaphor holds in an African context where financial services have often leapfrogged older models, from mobile money to decentralised wallets. If stablecoins are more mainstream-integrated and deployed as an end-to-end system for everyday treasury and settlement, HoneyCoin could well mark the beginning of that generational shift.
A healthy degree of scepticism, however, is still warranted. Africa’s regulatory map is jagged, dollar shortages persist, and stablecoins remain politically sensitive. HoneyCoin has sought to hedge this by securing licenses in the US, Canada, the EU, and multiple African jurisdictions, while also striking partnerships with incumbents like MoneyGram, UBA Bank, and Stripe. Visa’s investment arm called it “a strong example of how stablecoins can unlock more efficient and inclusive payment solutions in emerging markets.” For a legacy payments giant to frame a blockchain startup as inclusionary, rather than risky, is a telling sign of how the narrative is shifting.
Africa’s fintech battleground: winners, losers, and the fight for payments
Few sectors in Africa have attracted as much capital or controversy as cross-border payments. Over the past decade, startups like Flutterwave, Chipper Cash, and MFS Africa have been hailed as continental champions, raising hundreds of millions in venture funding and promising to untangle the continent’s fragmented rails. But the results have been mixed. Flutterwave, once valued at over $3 billion, has faced regulatory pushback in key markets. Chipper Cash, after expanding aggressively into new geographies, has been forced into layoffs and valuation cuts. MFS Africa, long a consolidator through acquisitions, is retooling its brand and integrations to regain momentum.
WORTH A READ:
Flutterwave, Yellow Card, Onafriq bet on USDC to turbocharge cross-border payments for African SMEs
This volatility underscores both the size of the prize and the cost of chasing it. Africa’s payments market, per McKinsey, is estimated at $230 billion in revenues by 2025, yet still dominated by cash and legacy banks. The challenge for challengers has always been balancing speed and scale with compliance and trust. That’s why HoneyCoin’s bet on a stablecoin-powered liquidity engine is notable; it’s less about competing on flashy front-ends and more about becoming invisible infrastructure. Whether it can escape the fate of its predecessors remains to be seen, but the intensity of the battleground leaves little room for half-measures.
For HoneyCoin, the opportunity lies not in reinventing payments, but in re-architecting them. Stablecoins may remain politically sensitive, but the firm’s decision to anchor its platform in compliance, securing licenses in the US, Canada, the EU, and key African jurisdictions, signals a long-game strategy. By pairing a liquidity engine with enterprise-grade APIs, HoneyCoin positions itself less as a consumer-facing disruptor and more as a backbone for other fintechs, merchants, and enterprises. If the past decade was defined by headline-grabbing raises and valuation drama, the next may be decided by infrastructure players who can stay invisible yet indispensable. HoneyCoin wants to be one of them.
Behind the figures is also the human edge: a young Kenyan engineer, once coding during lockdown, now running a payments platform licensed across continents and serving millions of users. Whether HoneyCoin becomes Africa’s next fintech heavyweight or ends up a well-built layer in someone else’s ecosystem, it is already pushing the conversation forward: that stablecoins are no longer speculative sidelines, but fast becoming the invisible infrastructure on which the next chapter of global finance may rest.
Do you have an innovative business (small, mid-scale business or startup) that adds value, creates opportunities or solves bold problems? Then you’ve got a story worth telling? Shoot us an email with SUBJECT “Story Worth Telling (+Name of Business)” to [email protected]
