Six Nigerian startups win $521,700 in Stellar grants, led by Yolat's $110K
What's the deal? Six Nigerian-founded projects have received a combined $521,700 in grants from round 44 of the SCF, Stellar Nigeria announced on X. YolatDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → led the awards at $110,000, followed by Jumpa at $89,700, Azza at $89,000, Choppaddi at $80,000, Paycashless at $78,000, and Blink at $75,000.
What are they building? Most target cross-border payments and stablecoin commerce. Yolat and Jumpa run cross-border money-transfer platforms; Choppaddi pairs e-commerce with stablecoin payments; Azza offers crypto trading through a WhatsApp AI agent; Paycashless provides payment collection tools and says it serves more than 150 merchants.
The standout: Blink lets users spend stablecoins — including USDC on Stellar, Solana, and Base, and USDT on Tron — at physical checkouts via Bluetooth, with merchants settling instantly in local currency.
Where the money comes from. The SCF is the Stellar Development FoundationDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →'s recurring grant programme, backing projects that build on the Stellar blockchain across open-application, ecosystem-integration, and infrastructure tracks. Round 44 closed for submissions in June and ran under a restructured framework, reportedly distributing several million dollars in XLM tokens across dozens of global winners, with individual grants capped at $150,000.
Worth noting. Choppaddi was founded by Chijioke Ogbechie, who died in December 2025. Co-founders Chukwuemeka "DoctorVee" and Progress Ochuko Eyaadah now lead the venture.
Context. Yolat's $110,000 grant sits well below the mid-range for its category — a modest ticket by broader funding standards, but a meaningful one for early-stage African fintech. The award comes as African startup funding has stayed thin; 32 startups on the continent raised $110 million in April, the lowest total in 12 months.
The signal: Grant capital is filling gaps that venture money has left in African fintech. With most winners building payment rails and stablecoin tools, the round underscores how blockchain foundations are positioning Nigeria as a testing ground for cross-border settlement.
Read more: CoinMarketCap
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