As the digital economy continues to grow on our continent, Grey is at the forefront of providing safe and convenient banking solutions to meet the needs of customers and businesses.

With a focus on Africa, Grey has developed a range of services that allow individuals and businesses to easily access and manage their foreign accounts, including currency exchange and access to virtual cards.

Furthermore, the user-friendly interface of their platforms provides customers with a seamless experience, while also empowering them to gain control of their financial future and participate in the global economy.

In addition to its core services, Grey is constantly exploring new technologies and partnerships to further enhance its product offerings. This includes the integration of advanced technology to improve fraud protection, data security and increase efficiency.

Grey, formerly Aboki Africa rebranded in February 2022, the rebrand which marked a new chapter for the company and further reiterated the company’s mission to make it easier for digital nomads to live and work in the modern world.

Grey’s CEO/Co-founder Idoreyin Obong said, “At Grey, we remain committed to providing innovative digital payment solutions that empower our users to achieve their financial goals. Furthermore, we believe that by providing access to foreign accounts, we are not just helping our users but also contributing to the development of the African economy.”

The startup’s dedication to providing exceptional service and innovative solutions has made it a trusted brand among its customers, and the company looks forward to continuing to serve the African market in the years to come.

Grey, co-founded by Idorenyin Obong and Femi Aghedo in 2020, offers foreign accounts in USD, GBP, and EUR to Africans, making it a seamless way to send and receive international payments.

The service offered by Grey enables its customers to have virtual international bank accounts for free and enjoy a seamless foreign payment process.

“Grey was founded in 2021 to empower people to live a location-independent lifestyle,” CEO of Grey, Idorenyin Obong, says. “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.”

On Grey, you can create 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 that you can spend it easily on the app. Grey 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, Grey also announced Its expansion into East Africa, starting with Kenya, and partnerships with payments giant Cellulant and ed-tech leader Moringa. Travelling to Kenya is much easier with Grey because you can pay vendors directly to M-pesa.

For example, suppose you’re a traveller on a trip to Nairobi. In that case, you can convert any supported currencies to Kenyan Shillings and pay for services directly to M-Pesa, or other mobile money accounts.

Grey is the easiest way to send money abroad and between African countries. The company plans to expand into 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 Grey customers in Nigeria and Kenya can send money to mobile money accounts in Uganda.

The company has also privately launched Grey Business to several companies. COO Femi Aghedo says, “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.”

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 the CEO, Idorenyin Obong, with this new round of capital, they plan to launch into new markets and extend their product suite to include not just remittances but also person-to-person and business-to-business payments so every African can enjoy seamless cross-border payments with low fees.

Just four months ago, Grey got accepted into Y Combinator’s 2022 winter batch for startups. Same period, it rebranded its identity, changing both its name, interface and logo to serve a much bigger mission.

On the other hand, Cellulant has been on a continuous mission to increase the innovations in making cross-border payments simpler and more decentralized. Through several recent partnerships, the company is gradually achieving its objectives.

In line with this, Grey’s partnership with Cellulant enables its launch in East Africa, spreading its products such as foreign bank accounts, instant currency exchange, and international money transfers, to Kenyans who sign up on Grey.

Kenyans can now get paid in their preferred foreign currency and withdraw directly to M-Pesa or their local bank account. Also, travellers going to Nairobi can convert any supported currency to Kenyan Shillings, pay for services directly to M-Pesa, or withdraw to a local bank account.

Grey offers a unique international money transfer service that enables its users to send and receive international payments without restrictions quickly. Cellulant is the company’s payments processor powering its payouts to thousands of Grey’s customers.

The instant currency exchange service offered by Grey enables its customers to have virtual international bank accounts for free, helping small businesses, freelancers, remote workers, and content creators in Kenya to enjoy a seamless payment process.

The endeavours by African fintech companies are rapidly enhancing the continuously growing digital environment where individuals now get remote jobs to work with countries other than theirs wherever they are. Processes like salary payments and other operations can now become simpler for all.

Grey was founded in 2020 by Idorenyin Obong and Femi Aghedo to make international transactions seamless, starting with Nigeria.

“For us at Grey, it is beyond just building remittance solutions. We sincerely want to enhance the interconnectivity of the evolving gig economy in developing countries; improving how we deal with cross-border remittance is just one way. Our team includes some of the brightest minds from diverse backgrounds working together to build solutions that delight our users,” Grey wrote.

Asides the name change, Grey recently raised an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding from Ingressive Capital and Abdul Hassan, co-founder and CEO of Mono and other investors. The startup is actively extending its reach and impact beyond the country.

Grey was founded in 2020 by Idorenyin Obong and Femi Aghedo to tackle the problem which exists in the exchange of foreign currencies in domiciliary accounts to local currency for Nigerians.

Before founding Grey, Obong has garnered experience from international companies where he worked remotely for most of his career and frequently received a constant flow of dollars into his domiciliary accounts. 

During withdrawals, he faced exchange challenges. He had to go to the bank, withdraw cash and meet a BDC operator who would travel long distances for one transaction. Hence, the reason for Grey.

Grey has grown to transact a net worth of $1,000,000 month-on-month. The company takes a 1% transaction fee capped at N3,000 (~$6) and affirms that from December 2021 to January 2022, its monthly users increased by 36% to 12,000 while revenue went up by 64%.

The provision of virtual foreign bank accounts has become a common strategy for fintechs trying to help Nigerians and Africans facilitate international transfers. Some other startups offering similar services include Techstars-backed PayDay and Fincra.

Grey Finance is one of the many African startups to have gotten into YC W22, which is set to be the largest batch for African startups yet. Grey’s next goal lies in attending to multiple requests from users who want to use mobile apps rather than the platform’s predominant web interface as well as launch virtual and physical foreign-denominated cards.