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.

Topship makes the sending and receiving process of items seamless for customers. The new capital will enable the startup, launched in 2020, to expand operations to Ghana, Tanzania and Kenya. Part of the investment would also be used to improve Topship’s asset-light technology and build out a proprietary global shipping infrastructure to make imports and exports significantly faster and easier.

Y Combinator was included in this round alongside Soma Capital, Starling Ventures, Olive Tree Capital, Capital X and True Capital. Angel investors were Immad Akhund, Mercury CEO and Arash Ferdowsi, co-founder of Dropbox.

Topship is striving towards creating the easiest way for African businesses to export and import parcels and cargo to their customers, suppliers, and distributors worldwide. Its mission is to make the shipping experience in Africa as easy and stress-free as booking an Uber ride.

The startup serves as a borderline for local and international shipping solution between digital freight and e-commerce fulfilment. The company allows 1,500 merchants to move cargo and parcels from Nigeria to over 150 countries. Although it can help Nigerian merchants receive parcel deliveries from other countries, it can only accept cargo deliveries from the U.S., U.K and China. 

The company’s revenue comes from selling shipping insurance and taking a margin on transactions, with current exploration in other revenue streams, including trade financing and customs clearance charges. Topship has recorded approximately 50% month-on-month revenue growth since getting into YC this January.

With focus also delving into fashion design and retail, the startup has set up grants worth $3,500 each to award new and established fashion brands in Nigeria as a sign of support for the future of the growing e-commerce sector in the country.