Six Nigerian startups get over $500,000 capital from Stellar Community Fund

From WhatsApp-based crypto agents to Bluetooth stablecoin payments at physical checkouts — here's what they're building.

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Six Nigerian-founded projects received a combined $521,700 in grants from round 44 of the Stellar Community Fund, Stellar Nigeria announced on X. The awards came through the Stellar Development Foundation's recurring grant programme, which funds projects building on the Stellar blockchain across open-application, ecosystem-integration, and infrastructure tracks.

Yolat led the round at $110,000. Jumpa followed at $89,700, then Azza at $89,000, Choppaddi at $80,000, Paycashless at $78,000, and Blink at $75,000. Individual grants in round 44 were capped at $150,000.

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What Each Company Is Building

The six projects cover a range of use cases, but a common thread runs through most of them: moving money across borders or converting crypto into something people can actually spend.

Yolat is a cross-border money transfer platform built around fast settlement and competitive exchange rates. Jumpa is targeting the same problem from a business angle, focused on cutting transaction delays for companies and individuals moving money across African borders. Co-founder Anita Ndukwe and the FoundersHub accelerator have been vocal about the project on X.

Blink takes a different approach. It lets users spend stablecoins, including USDC on Stellar, Solana, and Base, and USDT on Tron, at physical checkouts through Bluetooth. Merchants settle instantly in local currency. Azza does something similar but entirely through WhatsApp, using an AI agent that lets users buy, sell, and send crypto using only a phone number.

Choppaddi combines e-commerce with stablecoin payments, built around the idea of shopping without currency friction. The startup was founded by Chijioke Ogbechie, who died in December 2025. Co-founders Chukwuemeka "DoctorVee" and Progress Ochuko Eyaadah are now leading the company forward. Paycashless rounds out the group with payment collection tools for businesses, including a virtual point-of-sale system, invoicing, and payouts. It says it currently serves more than 150 merchants.

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About the Fund

The Stellar Community Fund is not a one-time programme. It runs recurring grant rounds, and round 44 closed for submissions in June under a newly restructured framework. Across all winning projects globally, the round distributed several million dollars in XLM tokens.

Stellar Nigeria, the local community arm of the network, is separate from the global Stellar Development Foundation. It has previously backed Nigerian fintech infrastructure and runs recurring hackathons and builder programmes in the country.

For Nigerian founders building on blockchain rails, the SCF has become one of the more accessible non-dilutive funding paths available, particularly for early-stage projects that haven't yet raised equity.

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