Nigerian Fintech Stabyl Raises $2.7 Million to Modernise Africa’s FX Infrastructure
Stabyl raises $2.7 million in pre-seed funding as the Nigerian fintech emerges from stealth to address one of Africa’s most persistent financial infrastructure challenges—foreign exchange (FX) liquidity. The company is building an institutional platform that enables banks, payment service providers (PSPs) and traders to source foreign exchange more efficiently using stablecoin-backed liquidity and real-time settlement infrastructure.
The funding round was led by Konga, which will also serve as Stabyl’s first commercial implementation partner through its licensed payment subsidiary, KongaPay.
Stabyl Raises $2.7 Million to Simplify FX Liquidity
Although African fintech companies have made significant progress in digital payments, sourcing foreign exchange before settlement remains highly fragmented. Treasury teams often spend hours contacting banks, liquidity providers and payment partners to compare exchange rates and secure liquidity.
Stabyl aims to eliminate this inefficiency by replacing manual negotiations with a Central Limit Order Book (CLOB). The platform allows buyers and sellers of foreign exchange to post and automatically match orders in a transparent marketplace.
As a result, financial institutions can access deeper liquidity, faster execution and improved price discovery while reducing exposure to foreign exchange risk.
Infrastructure Focuses on Financial Institutions, Not Consumers
Unlike many fintech startups, Stabyl is not building a consumer payment application. Instead, the company focuses on the infrastructure layer that powers cross-border payments behind the scenes.
Its platform enables banks, payment service providers and institutional traders to source foreign exchange before payments are settled. Consequently, organisations can reduce delays that frequently occur when liquidity is sourced through multiple counterparties.
The company believes that while payment information now moves instantly through APIs and digital platforms, capital itself often moves much more slowly. This disconnect creates what financial markets describe as “trapped capital,”where funds remain tied up during settlement.
Stabyl’s infrastructure seeks to remove these bottlenecks by enabling real-time liquidity sourcing and faster settlement across both traditional banking systems and blockchain networks.
Konga Partnership Strengthens Settlement Infrastructure
As part of the investment, Konga becomes Stabyl’s first real-world deployment partner.
For fiat transactions, KongaPay will serve as the company’s official naira settlement partner. Meanwhile, digital asset custody and wallet infrastructure will be provided by DFNS, a multi-party computation (MPC) wallet provider.
Stabyl currently supports USDT (Tether) and USDC (USD Coin) for stablecoin settlements. However, the company said its platform remains blockchain-agnostic and selects networks based on transaction costs, settlement speed, reliability and institutional requirements.
Building the Liquidity Layer for African Payments
Co-founded by Ekeh, Schwartzman and Michael Anyi, Stabyl is positioning itself as a foundational infrastructure provider rather than another cross-border payments platform.
The startup aggregates liquidity from participating financial institutions and payment service providers while maintaining additional liquidity reserves through selected institutional partners. This approach helps ensure liquidity remains available even during periods of elevated demand.
According to the company, a typical treasury team at a large organisation may contact several banks and liquidity providers before securing foreign exchange. By the time approvals are completed, exchange rates may already have changed, forcing businesses to restart negotiations or accept less favourable pricing.
Stabyl’s marketplace is designed to eliminate these delays through automated matching and transparent liquidity discovery.
Funding Supports Africa’s Next Financial Infrastructure Layer
The successful pre-seed round reflects growing investor interest in financial infrastructure that operates behind consumer-facing fintech products.
Rather than competing for retail users, Stabyl aims to become the liquidity backbone for Africa’s payment service providers, banks and institutional liquidity partners. As cross-border trade and digital payments continue to expand across the continent, the company believes reliable foreign exchange infrastructure will become increasingly critical to enabling faster, more predictable and cost-effective international transactions.
