Business Briefings
Checker Raises $8m For African Expansion
Checker, a digital asset infrastructure company focused on stablecoin-powered financial services, has secured $8m in funding to expand operations across Africa and other emerging markets.
The funding round was led by Al Mada Ventures, the sovereign wealth investment platform of Morocco and parent company of Attijariwafa Bank, alongside Galaxy Ventures and Framework Ventures.
Other participants in the investment round included African technology ecosystem stakeholders such as Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, former Onafriq executive Gwera Kiwana, Juicyway co-founder Justin Ziegler, and investors linked to Stripe and Tala.
The round also attracted support from financial and venture capital firms including DFS Lab, Bitso, Airtm, Onigiri Capital, SNZ Capital, and Velocity.
Checker said the funding would accelerate the development of stablecoin infrastructure aimed at improving cross-border payments, liquidity access, treasury management, and financial settlement systems across African markets.
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The company noted that fragmented payment systems, foreign exchange volatility, and expensive correspondent banking relationships remain major obstacles facing African financial institutions and businesses engaged in international transactions.
According to Checker, many stablecoin operators currently depend on multiple liquidity providers and informal settlement systems, creating operational inefficiencies that limit scalability.
The company said its platform addresses these challenges through a unified application programming interface connecting banks, neobanks, payment companies, and cross-border businesses to global stablecoin liquidity and settlement infrastructure.
Managing Director of Al Mada Ventures, Omar Laalej, described liquidity access as one of the major barriers limiting stablecoin adoption globally.
“Checker addresses this with a novel orchestration layer that organizes fragmented stablecoin liquidity into a programmable, compliant network,” he said.
Checker stated that Africa has become one of the fastest-growing digital asset markets globally due to rising fintech adoption, a youthful population, and improving regulatory clarity in countries such as Kenya and South Africa.
The company noted that Nigeria remains one of the world’s leading markets for cryptocurrency usage, while regulators across East and Southern Africa continue to introduce licensing frameworks for virtual asset service providers.
Head of Africa Sales at Checker, Isaac Umejiaku, said the company is building infrastructure designed to simplify global financial connectivity for African institutions.
“We’re building the network-of-networks infrastructure for the stablecoin era,” he said.
“With one integration, we connect African financial institutions to multiple payment providers, cross-border payment businesses, and banks globally, dramatically reducing settlement times and fees,” he added.
Chief Executive Officer of Checker, Jack Chong, said the new funding would support the company’s plans to deepen global payment coverage and reduce reliance on traditional correspondent banking systems.
He added that the company also intends to develop embedded borrowing and lending products aimed at improving capital efficiency and reducing pre-funding requirements for institutions using stablecoin settlement systems.
