CV Labs and Stellar Unveil 10 High-Growth Startups for Inaugural Global Accelerator

As programmable money, real-world asset tokenization, and stablecoin payment rails continue to reshape international commerce, blockchain ecosystem builder CV Labs and the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) have launched the first cohort of the Stellar x CV Labs Accelerator.

Selected from a global applicant pool, ten high-growth financial technology startups hailing from the UAE, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the United States have gathered in Cape Town, South Africa, to commence an intensive boot camp. Operating through CV VC’s Startup Activation Service, the 12-week program combines Stellar’s high-performance payment network with CV Labs’ international incubator infrastructure across Switzerland, the UAE, Germany, Liechtenstein, Portugal, and South Africa.

Accelerating Cross-Border Financial Infrastructure

The program focuses specifically on scaling established founders who are building practical, enterprise-grade infrastructure rather than early-stage prototypes. The selected cohort targets long-standing inefficiencies in international payments, foreign exchange risk, trade credit, and digital dollar distribution, particularly across high-growth emerging markets.

Participating startups gain direct commercial access to two of the world’s prominent digital asset hubs—Switzerland’s Crypto Valley and the UAE—before showcasing their progress at an in-person Demo Day during the Stellar Meridian 2026 conference in Lisbon, Portugal.

“These aren’t companies searching for product-market fit. They’re businesses already solving meaningful problems across global finance,” stated Olaf Hannemann, co-founder of CV VC and CV Labs. “Our role is to help accelerate commercial growth through access to world-class mentors, strategic partners, investors and two of the strongest global blockchain ecosystems, Switzerland’s Crypto Valley and the UAE, as well as what we consider the most attractive emerging market for our tech stack, Africa.”

“The quality of this inaugural cohort reflects how quickly blockchain is transforming financial infrastructure,” added José Fernández da Ponte, president and chief growth officer at the Stellar Development Foundation. “These founders are building solutions that address genuine market needs, from cross-border payments to digital asset access and trade finance.”

The Inaugural 10 Cohort Members

The ten selected startups reflect a diverse range of specialized financial applications:

• Crebit Pay (USA): Building a rate-locking layer for stablecoin foreign exchange to bring price predictability to corporate cross-border payments.

• DeFa by InvoiceMate (UAE): Providing secondary settlement liquidity for licensed cross-border payment operators across Africa and the Gulf.

• Janus (Germany): Developing an integrated financial operating system tailored for global trade logistics and supply chains.

• JoonaPay (Côte d’Ivoire): Constructing financial operations infrastructure for Francophone African enterprises to collect, send, and reconcile multi-rail payments across mobile money, legacy banking, and stablecoins.

• Kutana (Ghana): Building decentralized trade finance rails that enable African small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to access import-export liquidity.

• Remi (UAE): Connecting traditional banking rails with digital asset liquidity to streamline cross-border transfers in gate-kept emerging markets.

• Saleem (UAE): Architecting feature-phone stablecoin payment infrastructure that requires no smartphone or bank account, targeting initial corridors in Syria and the Levant.

• Sly (USA): Unlocking autonomous agentic finance by providing decentralized identity, governance, and payment infrastructure for AI agents.

• Sorted (Hong Kong): Engineering a non-custodial wallet framework designed to expand digital dollar access across South Asia and Africa.

• Yolat (Nigeria): Deploying a multi-currency cross-border neobank for African businesses and individuals to earn, hold, and transact across borders.

By backing founders building on open-source, low-cost blockchain rails, the accelerator is laying the operational foundation for the next generation of friction-free global banking.