Nigerian Fintech Gray Secures $2 Million to Facilitate Regional Expansion
Grey, a fintech started by two Nigerians to simplify sending and receiving foreign payments for Africans, has raised $2 million in seed funding.
The service offered by Gray enables customers to have virtual international bank accounts for free and enjoy a seamless overseas payment process.
“Grey was founded in 2021 to empower people to live a location-independent lifestyle,” CEO of Grey, Idorenyin Obong, says.
“I believe the least of your worries as a freelancer, telecommuter or digital nomad should be sending or receiving payments, so we’ve made it easy.
We like to say that we aim to make international payments as easy as sending an email. We want to do impactful work to improve how Africa as a continent interacts with money across borders. I am happy that we have gained an extensive and very loyal user base.”
At Grey, you can open a foreign USD, GBP and EUR bank account for free, send money to the UK and Europe and receive payments from over 88 countries.
The company also offers conversion directly to your local currency so you can easily use it on the app.
Gray allows users to receive foreign payments in their preferred foreign currency and withdraw directly to mobile money or their local bank account.
In addition to the funding announcement, Gray also announced its expansion into East Africa, starting in Kenya, and partnerships with payments giant Cellulant and ed-tech leader Moringa. Traveling to Kenya is much easier with Gray because you can pay suppliers directly to M-pesa.
For example, suppose you are a traveler on a trip to Nairobi. If so, you can convert all supported currencies into Kenyan shillings and pay for services directly to M-Pesa or other mobile money accounts.
Gray is the easiest way to send money abroad and between African countries. The company plans to expand to more East African countries in the coming months.
It has included support for Ugandan shillings on the app, bringing the total number of supported currencies to six.
This addition means that Gray customers in Nigeria and Kenya can send money to mobile money accounts in Uganda.
The company has also privately launched Gray Business to several companies. COO Femi Aghedo says, “Sending money around the world is not just an individual problem; it also affects African businesses.
Over the past two months, we’ve brought several African businesses into our private beta. Honestly, when I listen to the feedback about how much we’ve simplified a previously complex process, it pushes us to do more.”
Grey’s seed funding round included participation from Y Combinator, Soma Capital, Heirloom Fund, True Culture Fund, angel investors Alan Rutledge, Samvit Ramadurgam, Karthik Ramakrishnan and other high-profile investors.
According to CEO, Idorenyin Obong, with this new round of capital, they plan to launch new markets and expand their product suite to include not only remittances, but also person-to-person and business-to-business payments, so that all Africans can enjoy seamless cross-border payments with low fees.
Techbuild’s opinion
One reason why firms across the continent prefer usds to pay each other instead of local currency is the lack of currency interoperability.
This problem is being solved by platforms like Verto, a worldwide B2B payment network that enables African firms to send and receive money internationally using multi-currency wallets.
This one-year-old fintech company is looking to break into the market with its Gray Business product by providing micro and small businesses with an affordable way to send and receive local currencies across the continent.
For the past two months, Gray Business has been in the beta retesting phase; the seed funding will help with public launch in Nigeria and Kenya.
Featured Image: Idorenyin Obong, CEO, Gray (left) and Femi Aghedo, CEO, Gray (right)
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