CrissCross, the South Africa-headquartered cross-border funds infrastructure firm, has secured an undisclosed investment from Circle Ventures, the company enterprise arm of Circle Internet Group, the corporate that points USD Coin (USDC), a digital stablecoin.
The investment, made by means of Stitch Group, CrissCross’s guardian firm, will assist the corporate develop its native cost connections and liquidity, construct extra stablecoin settlement capabilities for enterprise prospects, and develop the crew supporting shoppers throughout the continent.
Stablecoins are more and more getting used to maneuver cash throughout borders, making them a rising a part of Africa’s funds infrastructure. Circle’s investment marks its second notable wager on the sector in 2026. In July, it invested in Nigerian fintech Flutterwave as the corporate expanded USDC settlement throughout its funds platform, permitting companies to gather funds regionally and settle in USDC. s.
“Africa’s cross-border payments market is massive, complex, and underserved,” James Cope, normal supervisor at CrissCross, stated in an announcement. “Circle Ventures’ investment validates what we’ve been building: infrastructure that can handle that complexity at scale.”
Lex Campbell and Byron Coetsee based CrissCross to make cross-border funds extra environment friendly for enterprise companies working in African markets. The firm was acquired early by Stitch and now sits inside Stitch Group, the South Africa-based funds group. CrissCross offers companies with a single utility programming interface (API) to gather cash, make payouts, handle funds and trade currencies throughout African markets.
For collections, CrissCross lets prospects pay retailers utilizing acquainted native strategies comparable to financial institution transfers, cellular cash and playing cards. For payouts, companies can ship particular person or bulk funds on to native financial institution accounts and cellular wallets. Its treasury instruments let firms handle funds throughout a number of currencies, whereas its international trade infrastructure lets them convert between native currencies, US {dollars}, and euros.
CrissCross connects blockchain-based settlement to native fiat cost networks. A enterprise can transfer worth between markets utilizing stablecoins, whereas the recipient can obtain native forex in a checking account. The firm says it chooses between stablecoin and fiat rails based mostly on a consumer’s necessities. It makes cash from the funds and forex conversions it processes for shoppers, and says its pricing varies relying on the markets, cost strategies, and companies every buyer makes use of.
“Stablecoins help funds move between markets quickly and transparently, and the money is delivered in local currency to the recipient’s bank account or mobile wallet,” the corporate stated in an announcement shared with TechCabal. “We use stablecoin or fiat rails depending on what each client needs for speed, cost and compliance.”
CrissCross is making an attempt to shut the hole between world stablecoin liquidity and native cost infrastructure. In October, CrissCross partnered with Velocity, a stablecoin funds and treasury platform, to attach institutional on-chain liquidity with native collections, payouts and FX. The partnership aimed to attach world stablecoin liquidity to native financial institution accounts and cost rails.
Sub-Saharan Africa obtained greater than $205 billion in on-chain crypto worth between July 2024 and June 2025, up 52% from the earlier yr. As crypto exercise grows, so does demand for infrastructure that connects digital property to native cost techniques and permits cross-border funds.
“We’re excited to support CrissCross as they bring stablecoin-powered payments infrastructure to scale across African markets — some of the most complex and underserved corridors in the world,” stated Brian Schultz, vice chairman of company growth and ventures at Circle.
CrissCross says it presently operates throughout greater than 30 markets spanning West, Central, East, Southern and North Africa, together with each CFA franc zones, and helps greater than 20 currencies. Its prospects embrace multinational enterprises, monetary establishments and platforms that want to maneuver cash throughout advanced African cost corridors. The firm needs to grow to be the infrastructure that lets world companies deal with Africa as one linked market reasonably than a set of separate cost techniques.
“We want global businesses to find it as easy to collect and pay out across African markets as anywhere else they operate,” it stated. “A company operating in Nigeria, Senegal or Kenya should be able to do it through the same infrastructure, with predictable settlement and full visibility over its funds. More enterprises are building their growth plans around African markets, and we want CrissCross to be the payments infrastructure they use to do it.”
Stablecoins have gotten the layer beneath funds for African funds firms. In June, Flutterwave introduced an investment from Ripple as a part of its Series E and stated it will combine RLUSD, Ripple Payments, and the XRP Ledger into its cost infrastructure. It has additionally partnered with Polygon and Tempo to construct out stablecoin settlement infrastructure.
Onafriq, which operates throughout greater than 40 African international locations, has taken an analogous route. In February, it partnered with Conduit to make use of stablecoins comparable to USDC to fund accounts and rebalance treasury holdings, and introduced one other partnership in July with digital-asset infrastructure supplier Privy to develop regulated stablecoin-powered cost companies for monetary establishments.
Yellow Card has shifted its focus in the direction of companies, offering stablecoin cost infrastructure, fiat settlement rails, custody, and native stablecoin issuance. Once related to crypto buying and selling, dollar-backed stablecoins are actually being positioned as a method for companies to settle transactions and transfer cash throughout borders.
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