Grey Raises $2 Millon In Seed Funding To Scale Cross Border Payments
Nigerian fintech company, Grey, has been reported to have raised Two million dollars ($2 million ) in seed funding. Grey is created to give users in Africa the ability to send and receive foreign payments. Via the platform, users can also create a free international bank account through which they can access an easy foreign payment transaction.
According to Co-founder and CEO, Idorenyin Obong, Grey was launched in the year 2021, to give people the ability to experience a “location-independent lifestyle”. In his words, Obong stated “I believe that the least of your worries as a freelancer, remote worker, or digital nomad should be sending or receiving payments, so we’ve made it easy. We like to say that we’re on a mission 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 its borders. I am delighted that we’ve acquired an extensive and fiercely loyal user base.”
One of the features users can access on the Grey platform is the ability to create an account that can hold GBP, USD, and EUR currencies for free. account owners can accept payemts from about Eighty-eight (88) countries.
Grey users also have access to direct conversion of foreign currencies to ingenious currencies and then transfer the money to a commercial bank of their choice.
Asides from the funding, Gery also revealed it has plans to expand its service location and it had the East African region in mind. The fintech plans to start with Kenya, there are already partnership processes going on with the East African country’s payment company, Cellulant, and ed-tech forerunner Moringa.
Grey in Kenya
As part of its plans to launch in Kenya, users on their way to Kenya can now pay bills in Kenya from their Grey accounts to the merchant M-pesa’s account. This is an access Grey provides, allowing seamless transactions between African countries and payment platforms. Asides from Kenya, the fintech also eyes Uganda as a country it will venture into soon.
Speaking about Grey’s initiative and activities COO Femi Aghedo said “Sending money worldwide is not just an individual problem; it affects African businesses too. Over the last two months, we’ve onboarded several African businesses to 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.”
The seed raid will go into the company’s plans to expand its offerings and launch into new markets. there are also intentions to provide Africans with B2B and P2P payment services and low charges cross border transactions.
The seed funding raised had the participation of Y Combinator, Heirloom Fund, True Culture Fund, Soma Capital and angel investors Samvit Ramadurgam, Alan Rutledge, Karthik Ramakrishnan, and others.