Fintech Stax Gets Additional Backing from Stellar Development Foundation to Build Affordable Borderless Payment Solution in Africa

SEPTEMBER 16, 2022 — Stax, a universal money app developed by Hover Developer Services, Inc. to enable users across Africa to access their bank accounts, and mobile wallets in one place without using mobile data, has received $500,000 from the Stellar Development Foundation’s (SDF) Matching Fund to support Stax in building an affordable, borderless mobile wallet on the Stellar blockchain.

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Stax allows users to buy airtime, send and request money, and transfer funds between accounts via automated USSD codes. By utilizing USSD codes, Stax permits its users to avoid the high costs associated with the use of mobile data and improves its users’ access to digital financial services. Seeing the challenges with borderless payments, Stax intends to make USD Coin (USDC), a fully-reserved dollar digital currency, on Stellar more accessible to users who want a secure place to hold their money, access global investment opportunities, and to participate in borderless commerce. Stax is bringing convenience to the movement of funds within Africa, and between Africa and the world, through USDC on Stellar. For Stax users, USDC provides a great entry point into the world of crypto, where Stax aims to help them protect their hard-earned money in pursuit of financial freedom.

“We’re excited to integrate with Stellar to bring our vision of an offline payment superapp to life,” said Ben Lyon, CEO of Hover Developer Services, Inc. “Stax and the Stellar Development Foundation are mission-aligned in our commitments to openness and inclusion. Together, we plan to make the dollar digital currency, USDC on Stellar and many other tokens broadly available to smartphone users with limited mobile data connectivity across Africa. As with our existing service, Stax’s multi-token wallet will be non-custodial, meaning we have zero access to user funds.”

SDF launched a blockchain bootcamp with DFS Lab to support the blockchain-oriented ideas of African developers and startups. In 2021, Stax participated in the bootcamp and was awarded $15,000 for its plans to make USDC accessible to data-conscious smartphone users. SDF is now providing additional support with a $500,000 investment in Hover Developer Services, Inc.

“Hover’s Stax app offers a more user-friendly, low-friction solution for customers who want to leverage USSD technology to buy airtime and access financial services,” said Denelle Dixon, CEO and Executive Director of the Stellar Development Foundation. “They identified a local problem and solved it using blockchain technology. This is exactly the type of solution the Matching Fund was created to support, and we’re thrilled for Stax users to discover the speed and accessibility of assets on Stellar.”

This follows after announcing a Seed extension round of $2.2M from World Within Ventures, Noemis Ventures, Launch Africa Ventures, Orange DAO, Manhattan West, Decentralized VC and others, joining Anthemis Group, 500 Startups, Garuda Ventures, GAN Ventures and numerous angels on the cap table.

Stax currently supports 100+ bank and mobile wallet services across 10 African countries and aspires to expand further. They plan to go-to-market with the non-custodial USDC wallet on the Stellar blockchain by the end of 2022, with the goal of becoming a multi-asset web3 wallet by the end of 2023. Stax is building a gateway for Africans to spend and store their money without barriers.

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About Stax & Hover Developer Services Inc.

Stax is a universal money app that leverages USSD automation technology to power offline and online payments for individuals and small businesses in Africa. Stax helps Africans send money, buy airtime, pay bills, and more online or offline. This is powered by a technical innovation developed by Hover Developer Services, Inc. (“Hover”) to run USSD sessions in the background of an Android app. Hover helps developers automate USSD sessions in the background of Android applications. As a result, the Android SDK can run virtually any USSD interaction on any mobile operator anywhere in the world.

About Stellar

Stellar is a decentralized, fast, scalable, affordable, and uniquely sustainable blockchain network for financial products and services. It is both a cross-currency transaction system and a platform for digital asset issuance, designed to connect the world’s financial infrastructure. Financial institutions and fintechs worldwide issue assets and settle payments on the Stellar network, which has grown to over 7 million accounts and processed more than 5 billion operations. For more information, visit stellar.org.

About the Stellar Development Foundation

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) is a non-profit organization that supports the growth and development of Stellar, an open-source network that connects the world’s financial infrastructure. SDF helps maintain Stellar’s codebase, supports the developers and businesses building on the network, and is an industry advocate to regulators and institutions. SDF seeks to create equitable access to the global financial system through blockchain technology. For more information, visit stellar.org/foundation.