Ezeebit, a South African fintech building infrastructure for stablecoin and cryptocurrency payments, has raised a $2.05m (R34.9m) seed round as it looks to capitalise on the continent’s growing appetite for alternative payment rails.
The round was led by Raba Partnership, a VC firm with a strong track record in African fintech (including Flutterwave and Stitch). notably, the raise also attracted Founder Collective — the US-based fund co-founded by David Frankel, an early backer of Uber, BuzzFeed and The Trade Desk.
The investment highlights a continuing thesis among VCs: while the “crypto winter” cooled interest in speculative assets globally, infrastructure plays in emerging markets — where crypto often solves real-world currency friction — remain attractive.
The “spendability” gap
Founded in 2023, Ezeebit is attempting to solve a specific bottleneck in the African market. While cryptocurrency adoption is high — often driven by consumers looking to hedge against inflation or receive remittances — spending those assets on everyday goods remains difficult.
Merchants, conversely, are wary of crypto volatility and are often locked into legacy banking systems with slow settlement times and high fees.
Ezeebit’s platform acts as an orchestration layer. It allows merchants to accept crypto payments via QR codes but settles the transaction instantly in stablecoins or converts it to local fiat currency by the next business day. This effectively removes the volatility risk for the retailer.
Since emerging from stealth earlier this year, the startup claims to have processed over 30,000 transactions. It has already signed up high-profile clients including iStore, Le Creuset, and Diesel.
The mechanics: Undercutting the cards
The startup is pitching itself as a cheaper alternative to traditional card networks. In Sub-Saharan Africa, credit card penetration hovers around just 4%, while card fees for merchants can exceed 2–3%.
According to Ezeebit, merchants on its platform pay fees of 1% or less — a purported savings of roughly 68% compared to traditional rails.
“African merchants are tied to slow, expensive payment rails, while consumers increasingly hold crypto for remittances and savings but lack a safe way to spend it,” says Daniel Katz, co-founder and CEO of Ezeebit. “We bridge this gap by connecting decentralised and traditional finance.”
The Market: Why Africa?
The investment comes against a backdrop of surging on-chain activity in the region. According to the 2025 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report, Sub-Saharan Africa received over $205bn in on-chain value between July 2024 and June 2025 — a 52% year-on-year increase.
Investors are betting that stablecoins will become the de facto rail for payments in economies where local currencies are volatile and remittance costs are high. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most expensive region globally to send money to, with average costs sitting at 8.78%.
“Mobile money has already sensitised hundreds of millions of consumers to pay digitally via QR,” says Katz, suggesting that shifting these users to stablecoin rails is a logical progression rather than a behavioral leap.
The Backers
The involvement of Founder Collective brings significant US attention to the Capetonian startup. David Frankel, a South African internet pioneer turned US venture capitalist, cited the specific utility of crypto in the African context as a driver for the investment.
“Millions of people hold crypto but can’t spend it; merchants need faster, cheaper rails, but legacy systems keep them locked out,” Frankel said. “Ezeebit is building the bridge.”
The round also included a roster of strategic angel investors with deep ties to fintech and crypto, including:
- Terry Angelos (ex-Visa)
- Anton Katz (Talos)
- David De Picciotto (ex-Revolut)
- Chris Harmse (BVNK)
What’s next
Ezeebit says it will use the fresh capital to accelerate product development and push into key African markets beyond South Africa, specifically targeting Kenya and Nigeria.
The expansion plan includes deepening partnerships with banks and telcos — crucial gatekeepers in the African payment landscape. However, the startup will face stiff competition. The “crypto-to-fiat” bridge is a crowded vertical, with numerous players vying to become the standard for merchant acceptance in Africa’s largest economies.
At a glance: Ezeebit
- Headquarters: Cape Town, South Africa
- Launched: 2023
- Sector: Fintech / Crypto Payments
- Funding: $2.05m Seed
- Lead Investor: Raba Partnership
- Notable Investors: Founder Collective, various strategic angels
- Key Metric: 30,000+ transactions processed since launch.