Nigeria’s Grey is helping users exchange local currency and access foreign currencies

Users can quickly switch to local money and access foreign dollars in their accounts thanks to the Nigerian firm Grey.

Idorenyin Obong and Femi Aghedo founded Grey in 2021, a global money transfer service that lets users to send and receive money internationally without delays. International money transfers, rapid currency conversion, and overseas bank accounts are some of its products.

The Y Combinator-backed finance firm recently completed a $2 million investment round and is actively growing. Last month, Kenya was announced as the startup’s East African center by Disrupt Africa.

“At Grey, we think that everyone, regardless of place of origin or circumstance, should have access to the global economy. We have developed a user-friendly, safe, and dependable platform with this in mind,” stated Aghedo.

“We found a gap in the market for Africans to open overseas bank accounts. Due to the constraints of conventional banks, we found that many Africans required assistance in order to receive payments from overseas companies. By providing a platform that makes it simple and quick for Africans to access foreign bank accounts, we felt we could have a good impact.

The money from the previous year, together with collaborations with a number of international financial institutions, have enabled Grey to broaden its offerings and extend its reach.

“We are pleased with the considerable accomplishments we have made thus far. Our worldwide mission of supporting digital nomads, creatives, and enterprises is something we continue to put a lot of effort into, according to Aghedo.

Since we first opened, the number of Africans using our platform to obtain virtual overseas bank accounts has increased significantly. This uptake has been excellent, and we are delighted to be improving the lives of our clients.

Grey currently resides in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, but he has aspirations to travel to more nations in Africa.

“People from all around the world utilize our service. We think that by using our services, people on the entire continent would be able to access financial services and take part in the global economy, said Aghedo.

Transaction fees form the basis of Grey’s business model. Aghedo declared, “We are happy with our company’s financial success and our business’s potential for expansion.

Navigating the regulatory landscape in Africa’s fintech industry was one of the startup’s main launch-day hurdles.

But despite these difficulties, we were able to successfully introduce our services. We are committed to collaborating with policymakers and regulators to improve the climate in Nigeria and throughout Africa for fintech firms, according to Aghedo.

“In addition, we encountered a number of operational difficulties throughout the launch procedure. To manage the large number of anticipated transactions, for example, we had to create a reliable and secure platform. Additionally, we had to make sure that our platform was trustworthy, usable, and available to our intended audience.