Access to US stock markets has historically been a privilege reserved for wealthier Africans with foreign bank accounts, expensive brokerage relationships, and the know-how to navigate cross-border financial infrastructure. A new startup wants to change that.
Daya, a fintech company focused on the African market, has launched a tokenised US stock trading product that allows users on the continent to buy fractional shares of American companies through blockchain-based tokens, according to African Startup Funding via Streamline Feed. The model mirrors approaches that have gained traction in other emerging markets, where tokenisation is being used to lower the cost and complexity of cross-border investing.
Tokenised stocks work by representing real underlying shares as digital tokens on a blockchain. Rather than purchasing an actual share through a traditional brokerage, a user holds a token that tracks the value of that share. This structure can dramatically cut transaction costs, eliminate minimum investment thresholds, and reduce the foreign exchange friction that typically makes US investing prohibitive for many African retail participants.
For everyday investors across Africa — whether in Lagos, Nairobi, or Accra — the pitch is straightforward: get exposure to companies like Apple or Amazon without needing a US bank account or thousands of dollars to start. Fractional ownership means someone could invest the equivalent of a few dollars and still participate in the performance of major global equities.
Details on Daya's funding status, specific investors, and the exact markets it is launching in first were not disclosed in early reporting. The startup's emergence, however, signals growing investor and founder appetite for products that bridge the gap between African savers and global capital markets — a segment that several fintechs, including Bamboo and Trove in Nigeria, have been working to serve through more conventional brokerage models.
What makes Daya's approach distinct is the blockchain layer, which could theoretically enable near-instant settlement, programmable compliance, and lower operational overhead compared to traditional stock access platforms. Whether African regulators — who have been cautious about crypto-adjacent financial products — will view tokenised equities as securities, commodities, or something else entirely will be a critical question for the startup's growth trajectory.
Why it matters: If Daya can navigate the regulatory landscape and deliver a reliable, low-cost product, it could meaningfully expand the population of Africans participating in global wealth creation — a gap that has widened as US equity markets have dramatically outperformed local bourses over the past decade.