Nigeria’s Fintech, Grey Finance, Raises $2 Million and Enables In-App Local Currency Conversions

Nigerian fintech, Grey, has raised $ 2 million as it sets out to grow its virtual currencies service tailored for digital workers.

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. Grey 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.

“We built Grey in 2021 to empower people to live a location-independent lifestyle. 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.” – Founders, Grey

The fintech has started off its expansion to East Africa in Kenya, by partnering with local fintech, Cellulant, and ed-tech startup, Moringa.

“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 said in a blog post.

Grey says it will be expanding to other East African countries soon. Meanwhile, the service already includes support for the Ugandan shilling adding to the 5 currencies on board.

As such, Grey customers in Kenya and Nigeria can send money to mobile money accounts in Uganda.

The startup has also started a B2B offering which will help businesses to make these sorts of international payments with several businesses already on-board on private beta.

Participants in the seed round included:

• Y-Combinator
• Heirloom Fund
• Soma Capital
• True Culture Fund

and several angel investors.