Grey, a Y Combinator-backed payments firm, has launched direct currency conversion routes for African businesses. The new service allows companies to pay cross-border suppliers without converting funds into US dollars first.
Eliminating the Dollar Dependency
Idorenyin Obong, Grey’s co-founder and CEO, spoke at a Lagos briefing on Thursday. He identified two major challenges for businesses: payment reliability and foreign exchange (FX) liquidity. Transactions between African nations often require multiple currency conversions. For example, a Nigerian business paying a Kenyan supplier might convert naira to USD, then to shillings, adding complexity.
Obong explained that Grey built direct currency pairs for such transactions. “Most times, if you’re trading within Africa, there’s always some form of intermediary currency,” he said. “We’ve built out these currency pairs, these exotic currency pairs, such that you never have to go in between to the USD.”
Building Infrastructure for Settlement
The company has invested in payment infrastructure for Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana. It supports multi-currency liquidity for sending and receiving money, enabling real-time settlement in several currencies. This reduces the need for businesses to source FX through multiple intermediaries, streamlining transactions.
The issue extends beyond Grey’s customers. In October, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) noted that many African payments still pass through external correspondent banking networks, increasing costs and operational risks. Other providers, like the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), are also working on local currency solutions.
Improving Payment Reliability
Reducing conversion steps is only part of the solution. Businesses also need predictable delivery times. Obong said customers moving amounts as little as $50, or larger amounts reaching $1 million, can experience uncertainty. Grey provides estimated delivery times and has invested in infrastructure to improve reliability.
“We spent the last six years building the infrastructure to ensure that we’re delivering at the last mile at 99.99% to our customers,” Obong said. In February, Grey expanded its business services. Its multi-currency platform, Grey Business, has processed nearly $100 million since launching. The company also expanded payouts to China, enabling payments in Chinese yuan. Overall, Grey has processed over 40 million transactions and nearly $5 billion since its founding.
By June, the company reported that the platform had processed $61.4 million in its first four months, partly driven by demand for stablecoin-based payments.
Grey’s ambition is to build services around broader financial activities. It started as a currency exchange in 2020 but shifted to foreign currency accounts when customers struggled to receive international payments. Remote work fueled demand, especially from professionals earning foreign salaries in Africa.
This insight led to Grey’s new Paycheck product, launched on Wednesday. It allows professionals earning in dollars, pounds, and euros to manage their salaries. The service integrates with Pouch, Grey’s savings feature, which allows customers to set aside money for goals such as education, travel, or major purchases. The company is exploring additional benefits, including credit and lifestyle rewards.
Grey faced questions at the briefing about difficulties some customers encounter when accessing foreign currency accounts and obtaining support. The company said it offers round-the-clock digital assistance and has a physical office, although it considers online support more effective for routing customer issues to its distributed teams.
Grey’s next challenge is proving that its expanding range of services can solve these problems consistently.
