Initial $150,000 in XLM funding per startup, on-site component in SA.
San Francisco, California & Zug, Switzerland, April 2026. The Stellar
Development Foundation (SDF), the nonprofit behind Stellar, the
high-performance network for near-instant, low-cost cross-border
payments and asset tokenisation, which consistently holds a top-30
position by market capitalization, has announced the Stellar x CV Labs
Accelerator [1].
The Stellar x CV Labs Accelerator comes as the Stellar network is seeing
measurable growth across both usage and institutional adoption. In 2025,
real-world assets on Stellar grew by 158%, while total value locked
increased by 127%. More than 800 active projects are now building across
payments, savings, lending, and liquidity use cases, and the network has
surpassed 10 million active accounts and more than 21.5 billion total
operations.
Global financial institutions use the Stellar network as essential
infrastructure. Franklin Templeton expanded its tokenized U.S. Treasury
fund, now holding more than $625 million in assets, to European
institutional investors on Stellar last year. PayPal launched its PYUSD
stablecoin on the network, while MoneyGram rolled out a
stablecoin-powered financial app built on Stellar. Companies including
Visa, Mastercard, Wirex, and U.S. Bank have also integrated the Stellar
network into production or pilot systems focused on payments and
settlement.
The Stellar x CV Labs Accelerator program will focus on startups
building across payments infrastructure, tokenized real-world assets,
and decentralized finance applications: areas where institutional
adoption is moving into production deployment. The 12-week program will
support and scale ten early-stage startups building in, or targeting,
Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). With a population of more
than 2 billion people and one of the fastest-growing digital regions
globally, EMEA is increasingly viewed by frontier technology drivers as
a strategic growth market. Stellar has strong foundations in the EMEA
region, with partnerships including MoneyGram, integrations with
Yellowcard and Flutterwave, and investments in companies such as
Invoicemate, ChipperCash, Kredete, OkHi and Cedar.
Startups selected for the accelerator will receive hands-on technical
support, tokenomics guidance, go-to-market development, and access to
structured funding pathways. Each team can secure up to $150,000 in XLM
in initial development funding from Stellar Development Foundation.
Participants will also gain exposure to investors and financial
institutions already active within the Stellar ecosystem. The program is
scheduled to begin in August 2026 and will run primarily remotely, with
an on-site component in Cape Town, South Africa. It will conclude with
an in-person Demo Day at the Stellar Meridian conference, taking place
October 2026 in Lisbon, Portugal.
“_When it comes to using blockchain in real-world financial
applications, the EMEA region is one of the most dynamic globally,_”
said José Fernández da Ponte, President and Chief Growth Officer at
the Stellar Development Foundation. _“Through this accelerator with CV
Labs, we want to support founders in the region building scalable
financial infrastructure that can operate across borders while advancing
our broader mission of improving access to the global financial
system.”_
The accelerator will be run by CV Labs, the ecosystem arm of blockchain
venture capital firm CV VC, which operates innovation hubs across
Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Portugal, South Africa, and the
UAE.
“_Our experience is built on a long track record of accelerating
blockchain startups, many of which are now part of our venture portfolio
through CV VC. Our acceleration-as-a-service model has already helped
other leading blockchain ecosystems. With Stellar, we are now bringing
that track record to one of the fastest-growing digital regions in the
world,”_ said Olaf Hannemann, Co-Founder at CV VC.
More broadly, the launch highlights a shift in strategy across major
blockchain networks. Rather than focusing solely on developer adoption
in traditional markets, networks are increasingly investing in regions
where digital payments, tokenization, and cross-border financial
services are already seeing strong real-world demand.
Applications for the program are now open here [2]
