Grace Ashiru
Cape Town fintech Lumepay has disclosed a $6 million pre-seed round to fund its cross-border payments business. Founder-led angels and South African fintech investors put up the money at the start of 2026, and the company has not identified a lead. A further $10 million or so sits in a capital float, which Lumepay uses to keep client liquidity steady.
Customers can send money over conventional banking channels or over stablecoins, depending on which works better for a given corridor. Chief executive Harry Huang calls this approach rail-agnostic, and he argues that the next phase of cross-border payments will blend traditional finance with stablecoins. Small businesses, corporates and institutions are the intended users.
The problem is familiar to anyone who has paid a supplier across an African border. Chief operating officer Luc Varejes told The Fintech Times that moving value between countries still depends on a tangle of correspondent banks and repeated currency conversions, and that every extra step makes a payment slower, pricier and less predictable.
Lumepay has moved quickly this year. Lumetrade, its venue for trading digital assets and stablecoins, opened in April, and the payments platform followed in June. October brought a green light from the Central Bank of Kenya, and payments there started soon after. Kenya joins a footprint that already takes in Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and the two CFA franc zones. Roughly 6,000 businesses and individuals have transacted across the two products so far.
The company has also built up its licences and banking ties. Nedbank sponsors its third-party payment provider activity in South Africa, which lets it collect and pay out rand. Standard Bank handles rand deposits and withdrawals for Lume Trade, the group entity that carries a Category I financial services provider licence. Two Canadian registrations, one with FINTRAC and one with the Bank of Canada, extend its regulatory cover outside Africa.
Core infrastructure, banking relationships and licensing will absorb the new capital. Management is already getting ready for a Series A and says it welcomes approaches from venture capital firms.
A legal dispute sits alongside the growth story. Crypto firm Ovex took Huang and chief legal and compliance officer Tatenda Nhemachena to court, claiming they broke restraint of trade, confidentiality and non-solicitation undertakings. Both executives held senior roles at Ovex before Lumepay. On 26 June, the Western Cape High Court upheld the restraint, although its order reaches only South Africa and runs for a short remaining period. Court records show Lumepay is seeking leave to appeal.
