Apart from the fact that most Fintechs in Nigeria facilitate financial transactions for consumers and businesses as well as ensure safe transfer of money both locally and internationally.
Finding a secure way to send and receive money does not seem to be enough, as a high percentage of people are particularly concerned with the ease of sending and receiving money internationally.
Nigerian Fintech Startup, Gray has stepped in to solve this challenge. The company recently raised $2 million in seed funding to enable customers to have virtual international bank accounts for free and enjoy a seamless overseas payment process.
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This means that African users, especially freelancers and remote workers, will be allowed to set up virtual international bank accounts that will enable them to receive and send money with ease.
On the Gray platform, users can also create an overseas US dollar, British pound and euro bank account for free, and also receive payments from over 88 countries.
Gray also offers conversion directly to local currency, allowing users to easily spend money on the app and also allows them to receive foreign payments in their preferred currency, and withdraw money directly to their mobile wallet or local bank account.
The startup which was founded by two Nigerians, Idoreyin Obong and Femi Aghedo in the year 2021, has since expanded its operations to East Africa, starting with Kenya where it has already partnered with two payment giants, which are; Cellulant and Edtech Upstart Moringa.
According to Grey’s CEO, Mr. Idoreyin Obong, he revealed that with this $2 million seed raised, the company plans to launch new markets and expand its product suite to include not only remittances, but also person-to-person and business-to – business payments, so all Africans can enjoy seamless cross-border payments with low fees.
In his words;
“Grey was founded to empower people to live a location-independent lifestyle. I believe 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 are 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 borders. I is happy that we have gained an extensive and very loyal user base”.
According to Grey’s Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Demo Aghedo, he disclosed that sending money across the world is not only an individual problem but businesses in Africa are also affected.
He further went on to reveal that the company has onboarded several African businesses for its private beta and the feedback so far has been positive.
Gray claims to have around 100,000 individual users, and since the beginning of the year, transaction volumes have increased by 200%.
Remember back in the day when it used to be a very challenging problem for Nigerian freelancers to receive payments across borders, which can be really frustrating. Well, not anymore, all thanks to Gray and other fintechs that have stepped in to eliminate this challenge.
