Checker bags $8m for cross-border payments push

By Parth Prabhudesai

Checker, a global digital asset infrastructure firm, has raised $8 million in a funding round to expand stablecoin-powered financial services across Africa and other emerging markets.

The round was led by Al Mada Ventures, the investment arm of Morocco’s sovereign wealth ecosystem and parent of Attijariwafa Bank. Existing and new investors including Galaxy Ventures, Framework Ventures, DFS Lab, Bitso and Airtm also participated in the round.

The funding highlights growing investor interest in stablecoin infrastructure as fintech firms look to improve cross-border payments and foreign exchange access in emerging markets.

Checker operates a single API-based infrastructure layer that connects banks, fintechs and payment providers to stablecoin liquidity, treasury management tools and settlement services. The company aims to solve the fragmentation challenges that currently affect digital asset payments across Africa, where institutions often rely on multiple liquidity providers and costly correspondent banking networks.

The company said its infrastructure supports cross-border trade payments, remittances and treasury operations, particularly for corridors linking Africa with China and the United States.

“We’re building the network-of-networks infrastructure for the stablecoin era,” said Isaac Umejiaku, Head of Africa Sales at Checker. “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.”

According to Checker, the platform has processed more than $3 billion in transaction volume since launch and currently supports 75 currencies across markets including Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania and Francophone West Africa.

The new capital will be used to expand global payments coverage, launch embedded lending and borrowing capabilities, and develop AI-powered treasury and automation tools.

“The primary barrier to scalability for the stablecoin industry is access to liquidity at scale,” said Omar Laalej, Managing Director at Al Mada Ventures. “Checker addresses this with a programmable and compliant liquidity network.”