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Honeycoin raises $4.9M, Revolut Hires ex-Adumo Exec, Western Union Acquires Intermex

Cross-border settlements are heating up

Author

Elly Ngoma
August 19, 2025

The Banking Brief

Golden Nuggets

  • HoneyCoin Raises $4.9M to Transform Cross-Border Payments

  • Western Union to acquire Intermex for $500 million, creating a combined user base of 21 million and potential wider adoption of Ripple’s XRP for settlements.

  • Revolut is still set to enter the South African market, hiring Tom Morrison, former Adumo COO, to spearhead strategic growth plans.

Main Stories

TLcom Capital AboutPortfolioTeamEcosystemBlogMedia Press Contact us Why we invested: HoneyCoin is Building the Bridge Between Traditional Banking and the Digital Asset World How did TLcom first meet David and the Honeycoin Team? We first met David Nandwa, the founder and CEO of HoneyCoin, through the Antler Kenya network in his early days as he advocated for blockchain technology in Africa. At the time, David was building HoneyCoin as an emerging crypto-enabled fintech. Even in those early days, David, already a serial entrepreneur with successful exits, stood out with his technical brilliance and deep understanding of the impact of virtual assets on financial services, which he paired well with strong execution. Over time, we were impressed by the business progress. The team established trusted client partnerships with leading banks and global stablecoin issuers, serving more than 350 enterprise customers including high-growth businesses like Cedar Money, TerraPay, and Jiji and further scaled their infrastructure across more than 45 countries. In a space with competing players in the African payments and cross-border markets, HoneyCoin stood out for its technical depth, sound regulatory strategy, and operational execution. What problem is Honeycoin solving? With an addressable market in FX, payments & B2B flows in Africa estimated at $3 trillion, HoneyCoin is addressing the challenges of local payment systems in many African countries, which often remain highly fragmented with high transacting costs and inefficient systems. Mid-to-large-sized businesses operating across multiple markets often need to connect with several providers and various payment channels, each with its own costs, licenses, and transaction restrictions. Cross-border transactions add another layer of complexity—think slow settlement times, which can traditionally take up to 7 business days, unpredictable FX conversion, capital controls, and limited USD liquidity. HoneyCoin is simplifying this complexity through its unified platform, which allows clients to collect payments, convert currencies, and settle across borders all through one seamless integration. They leverage both fiat and stablecoin rails, enabling same-day settlement, 50%-90% cost savings and on-demand liquidity access. What differentiates Honeycoin from other companies? In a space where most players have narrow point solutions offering single products and commoditized segments of the value chain, HoneyCoin has built a complete solution that operates as a multi-product one-stop-shop infrastructure platform offering services that span local payouts and collections, cross-border FX settlement, and treasury management. This full-stack model enables HoneyCoin to monetize multiple points in the customer journey, improve margins, and offer deeper integrations with enterprise clients. Their infrastructure-first strategy addresses critical liquidity, compliance—demonstrated by their licensing in the US, Canada, EU and key African jurisdictions—and settlement issues while rapidly expanding among major clients in fintech and e-commerce across key corridors like Nigeria–Kenya and South Africa–China. Their partnerships in stablecoin liquidity and banking relationships with major players like MoneyGram, UBA Bank, and Stripe position them as the interoperability layer between traditional banking and the digital asset world. Why is TLcom excited about investing in Honeycoin? We are excited about HoneyCoin's potential to be Africa’s leader in bridging fiat and stablecoin payments infrastructure with its multi-product and multi-market payment and fund flow infrastructure. It unifies Africa's fragmented payment rails, linking fiat and the rapidly growing stablecoin ecosystem, reaching enterprise customers and hundreds of thousands of consumers through its flagship consumer app, Peer. Their vision to be the 'operating system for money movement' in Africa, backed by a resilient team, makes us positive and expectant of this investment. August 12, 2025 Next Why We Invested: Educatly is Expanding Access to Global Higher Education for African Students NAIROBI OFFICE 1st Floor, Jahazi Building 154 James Gichuru Road Nairobi, Kenya info-ke@tlcomcapital.com LAGOS OFFICE 304 Borno Way Alagomeji, Yaba Lagos, Nigeria info-ng@tlcomcapital.com LONDON OFFICE 85 Great Portland Street W1W 7LT London United Kingdom Tel. +44 20 82377070 info@tlcomcapital.com

1. HoneyCoin Raises $4.9M to Transform Cross-Border Payments

Why it matters: Cross-border payments in Africa face challenges like delays and high fees despite a $329 billion market. HoneyCoin’s blockchain-powered stablecoin infrastructure promises same-day settlements at a fraction of traditional costs, tackling these pain points head-on.

Zoom in:

  • What’s are stablecoins? Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency that are pegged to a Fiat currency like the US Dollar. This means they fluctuate less than your traditional cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum.

  • Who Funded Them? This round was led by Flourish Ventures with a seasoned syndicate including Visa Ventures and TLcom Capital, the round boosts HoneyCoin’s expansion into Mozambique, Zambia, Rwanda, Francophone Africa, Latin America, and Asia which seems like massive expansion fairly fast.

  • Profitable? The Nairobi-based startup claims profitability for two years and monthly B2B transaction growth of 16%, alongside consumer growth via its Peer app.

  • HoneyCoin’s platform directly connects with banks, mobile money networks, and global partners like MoneyGram, UBA Bank, and Stripe to settle transactions faster and cheaper than traditional rails.

  • The upcoming product suite aims to provide comprehensive payment solutions including a stablecoin debit card, banking as a service, and software POS solutions tailored to African markets.

Be smart: Investors’ renewed focus on blockchain’s actual utility vs. just crypto hype shows maturity in African fintech funding. HoneyCoin’s success could catalyze wider adoption of compliant, blockchain-enabled finance across emerging markets. The key here is blockchain being used on the backend.

2. Western Union Acquires Intermex for $500M

Who are they? Intermex, or International Money Express, is a financial services company specializing in money transfers, particularly from North America and Europe to Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Founded in 1994, Intermex provides money transfer services through retail agent networks, company-operated stores, mobile apps, and websites, enabling consumers to send money digitally and for cash pickup globally. Think of them as World Remit or Moneygram in Africa.
Why it matters: This consolidation strengthens Western Union’s position in remittances, better positioning it against digital natives like Wise and Remitly. Western Union’s growth has slowed down in the US, but keeps growing in Latin America.
Who’s Involved: Intermex adds 6 million customers and 10,000 U.S. send locations, expanding Western Union’s network to approximately 21 million users. The deal includes potential tech adoption synergies, particularly via Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity XRP solution (i.e. blockchain solution), enabling faster cross-border settlements. Are you sensing a theme here? Seems like cross-border payments are increasingly using blockchain solutions.
Be smart: Watch how this merger accelerates digitisation of remittance services and could shift cost structures in global money transfers.

3. Revolut’s South African Market Entry: Growth Strategy

Why it matters: As one of Europe’s largest Neobanks, Revolut’s entry signals increasing competition in SA fintech space, especially in alternative lending and digital banking.
Zoom in: Revolut appointed Tom Morrison, former COO of SME lender Adumo, (who were acquired by Lesaka this year) to lead its South African expansion. This hire aligns with Revolut’s push into alternative credit products tailored to local consumer and SME needs. Revolut initially aimed to enter Africa through South Africa, but paused after compliance issues. They entered Africa with Morroco first, but have clearly still kept an eye on South Africa market.
So What? Keep tabs on Revolut’s product rollout and partnerships locally to gauge competitive shifts in personal and SME lending. They’ll likely be competing with Bank Zero and Discovery Bank. And if they simplify their offering, TymeBank’s digitally-savvy consumers.

Startup Spotlight

HoneyCoin

Founded in 2020 by David Nandwa, one of Africa’s youngest fintech CEOs, HoneyCoin uses blockchain and stablecoins to drastically reduce cross-border payment times from days to hours.

Processing $150 million in transactions monthly through an enterprise play, HoneyCoin’s platform integrates with banks and mobile networks across 45 countries, serving both consumers and enterprises.

+This

On August 16, 2025, Johannesburg hosted the massive Wiki Finance Expo, the world’s largest fintech event, spotlighting Africa’s rising influence with more than 10,000 attendees and 3,000 companies showcasing innovations in payments, crypto, and AI.

That’s a wrap. See you tomorrow!