PRESS RELEASE | FSCA-Regulated Infra Startup, Ezeebit, Raises $2 Million Seed to Scale Stablecoin and Crypto Payment Infrastructure Across Africa

[PRESS RELEASE]

Ezeebit, the FSCA-regulated stablecoin and cryptocurrency payment infrastructure company, has announced the close of a $2.05 million seed funding round. The capital will be used to accelerate product development and merchant adoption in South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria and expand strategic partnerships with banks, PSPs, and telcos.

Ezeebit enables merchants to accept cryptocurrency payments with instant stablecoin settlement and next-business-day local fiat payouts. Since launching in 2023, the company has already processed more than 30,000 transactions totalling millions of dollars in gross merchandise value. Clients include iStore, Le Creuset, Scoin, Tintswalo Lodges, Amiri and Diesel.

Ezeebit’s funders include prominent industry names – all of whom bring a wealth of expertise in payments, financial infrastructure and growth strategies.

The round was led by:

• African fintech investor, Raba Partnerships, focuses on entrepreneurs in emerging technology ecosystems, partnering with founders to build companies that generate outsized returns by solving real-world problems. Partnerships include many category-defining African software and internet companies.
• The Founder Collective is one of the world’s largest seed-stage investors. Its co-founder, David Frankel, has appeared on the Forbes Midas List four times and has backed more than ten billion-dollar startups including Uber, Airtable, The Trade Desk and Venmo He is also known as the entrepreneur who built the major South African ISP, Internet Solutions.

Noteworthy angels:

• Terry Angelos (Head of Fintech at VISA, for seven years)
• Anton Katz (CEO of Talos, an institutional crypto exchange valued at~$2B)
• Nadir Khamissa (Co-founder of Hello Group, a South African fintech and telecoms group that builds low‑cost financial and communication services for migrant and marginalised communities)
• David De Picciotto (former GM of Expansion at global fintech, Revolut, for five years)
• Chris Harmse (Co-founder and Chief Business Officer of BVNK, an enterprise stablecoin payments infrastructure company)

“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,” explains Daniel Katz, CEO and Co-Founder of Ezeebit.

“We bridge this gap by connecting decentralised and traditional finance with a compliant stablecoin settlement layer. This funding empowers us to provide that vital infrastructure, allowing millions to participate fully in the global digital economy.”

Ezeebit was built by three brothers, Daniel, David and Jonthan Katz, after they personally experienced the challenges of cross border payments in Africa Between them, their backgrounds in engineering, finance, and computer science brings both technical depth and commercial experience to the business.

Bootstrapped since launch, external funding will now help support Ezeebit’s expansion strategy.

Why Ezeebit is Needed in South Africa

South Africa’s payment rails were never built for the everyday merchant: debit cards are widespread among consumers, but acceptance is low because interchange and acquiring fees remain stubbornly high relative to narrow retail margins. A U.S. merchant can shrug off 2–3% card fees; a South African merchant selling groceries, airtime, or household goods often operates on margins below that, meaning every swipe risks turning a sale into a loss. Layer on multi-day settlement delays and a volatile currency – where the rand can swing 10-20% in a quarter, and you get an ecosystem where neither merchants nor customers trust traditional rails.

Stablecoins solve two problems at once:

• they provide a currency hedge for consumers and
• promise instant, low-cost settlement for merchants.

Ezeebit is the connective tissue making those stablecoins actually spendable in stores.

Addressing Consumer Needs and Merchant Costs

Africa is experiencing a convergence of structural tailwinds. These include lingering inflation in some countries fueling the demand for stablecoins, negligible credit card penetration (just 4% of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa hold credit cards), and mobile money increasing the comfort of hundreds of millions to pay digitally via QR codes. In addition, smartphone adoption will approach 90% by 2030, expanding the addressable market.

According to the 2025 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report, between July 2024 and June 2025, Sub-Saharan Africa received over $205 billion in on-chain value, an increase of 52% from the previous year, making it the third fastest growing region in the world, behind APAC and Latin America.

REPORT | Sub-Saharan Africa is the 3rd Fastest-Growing Region Globally in OnChain Value

While there is strong growth in traditional digital payment adoption, African merchants face immediate challenges including high fees (around 2–3% or more for card transactions), multi-day settlement (between three and five days), frequent declines, and limited cross-border options.

Ezeebit merchants enjoy fees of 1% or less amounting to a 68% saving compared to traditional card payments, along with instant stablecoin settlement and next-business-day local fiat payouts, eliminating volatility risk.

“Mobile money has already sensitised hundreds of millions of consumers to pay digitally via QR and account-to-account transfers. Stablecoins are the logical next step.

What’s more, at 8.78%, Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most expensive region in the world to receive remittances, making crypto rails a compelling alternative. And, once consumers have received crypto, they are eager to spend it on goods and services, creating a reinforcing growth loop,” Katz says.

David Frankel, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Founder Collective says,

“What’s happening in Africa is extraordinary. Millions of people hold crypto but can’t spend it; merchants need faster, cheaper rails, but legacy systems keep them locked out.

Ezeebit is building the bridge.

This team has an uncommon gift for integrating modern financial technology with a grounded understanding of the dynamics shaping the markets they serve.”

Amanda Herson, General Partner at Founder Collective, added,

“What excites us most is how Ezeebit makes something complex feel simple. They’ve built real infrastructure, including wallet orchestration, instant hedging, and compliance tooling, that makes crypto payments work like tapping a card.

In markets where half the population is unbanked, Ezeebit isn’t just processing transactions, they’re opening access and building a trusted brand in the space.”

Compliance-First, Built for Scale

Regulatory ambiguity remains one of crypto’s biggest adoption hurdles. Ezeebit stands out as an FSCA-regulated, Africa-first stablecoin payment infrastructure, a compliant Financial Services Provider (FSP) as well as a Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP).

The platform is Compliance by Design with built-in AML/KYC and Travel Rule readiness.

REGULATION | The Travel Rule Takes Effect in South Africa and Regulated Crypto Exchanges Are Complying

This allows merchants to accept Bitcoin, USDT, USDC, and ETH and more, from any wallet (custodial, DeFi, or foreign) through seamless omnichannel rails – including Android ePOS devices, e-commerce plugins, and APIs – without taking on regulatory volatility or risk.

Ezeebit is wallet agnostic. This benefits users by giving them the freedom to use their preferred wallets, while also reducing friction at the point of payment for a better user experience. This expands the platform’s accessibility and adoption opportunity across diverse crypto users.

George Rzepecki, Founder at Raba Partnership, commented:

“While Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most expensive region for money movement, Ezeebit is rebuilding the payment stack with compliant stablecoin and crypto rails. Regulatory clarity in key African markets creates a rare window to build this infrastructure at scale.”

About Ezeebit

Ezeebit is a South African FSCA-regulated crypto payment infrastructure company (FSP & CASP No. 53664) enabling merchants to accept cryptocurrency and stablecoin payments with instant stablecoin settlement and local fiat payouts.

Operating since 2023, it was founded by three brothers – Daniel, Jonathan, and David Katz – who saw firsthand how traditional payment systems were failing African merchants, Ezeebit was built from the ground up to solve real merchant problems with compliance-first infrastructure. The company serves brick-and-mortar and online merchants across South Africa with expansion planned into the rest of Africa.

Learn more at ezeebit.com.

REGULATION | South Africa Has Now Approved 248 Crypto Providers Out of 420 Received So Far, Only 9 Applications Rejected

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