Africa-focused payments firm Yellow Card has secured $40 million in a strategic equity funding round, pushing its total accumulated capital to over $120 million since its 2016 inception. The round attracted SC Ventures, the venture arm of Standard Chartered, alongside Sony Innovation Fund, Polychain Capital, and Blockchain Capital. A source close to the transaction indicated the valuation exceeded the $200 million mark recorded in 2022 but did not reach the $1 billion threshold.
CEO Chris Maurice stated the fresh capital will be used to expand Global USD Accounts, a dollar-denominated account product for businesses, and to add stablecoin and local payment rails in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. The product already allows corporates to hold dollars, transact with stablecoins, manage treasury operations, and move local currencies across more than 50 countries via domestic payment systems.
Yellow Card was founded with the explicit goal of competing with the Swift interbank messaging network, which processes over 53 million secure messages daily for nearly 11,500 financial institutions. Maurice envisions a near future where “payments flow directly between banks onchain, without B2B payments companies or other payment service companies in the flow at all.”
To date, Yellow Card has processed more than $10 billion in transactions and holds licenses, authorizations, or registrations in 22 jurisdictions. Maurice highlighted that transaction volumes from large financial institutions are now growing faster than those from corporations, signaling accelerated banking adoption of its stablecoin-based rails. The company’s initial operating experience across fragmented African regulatory systems is expected to aid its expansion into Latin America and Asia-Pacific, where currency controls and stablecoin rules also vary widely.
