Idorenyin Obong, CEO of Grey, recently shared insights on the company’s transition from Aboki Africa, the challenges faced by remote workers and freelancers, and the strategies behind Grey’s impressive growth. Here’s an in-depth look into the journey and vision of Grey, as told by Idorenyin.

Transitioning from Aboki Africa to Grey

“When we started the company, our only objective was to provide instant currency exchange for individuals. The name ‘Aboki’ is a nickname given to roadside currency exchange dealers in Nigeria, so we derived ‘Aboki Africa.’ After launching the initial MVP, we saw a bigger problem—it was difficult for customers to receive foreign payments through local banks, and we wanted to fix this,” said Idorenyin. “This meant we had to build something bigger than just currency exchange. We went ahead to launch US, UK, and EU bank accounts embedded with currency exchange and other products for customers. In a nutshell, we grew bigger than just currency exchange, and the initial name didn’t cut it anymore. We needed a name that wouldn’t limit us and also cater to future expansion plans.”

The rebranding to Grey was initially met with some resistance from users, but eventually, it was accepted. “It took a while for our customers to accept this change, and that’s understandable. We’re happy they understood the rationale, and everyone has accepted it.”

Addressing Challenges for Remote Workers and Freelancers

Idorenyin highlighted the significant challenges remote workers and freelancers face, particularly in receiving international payments. “There’s a fundamental problem we’re trying to solve today, and that is receiving international payments. In Africa, getting a local USD account from a traditional bank takes at least one week; mine took three months in 2018. Beyond getting the account, you will face delays in receiving payments. Local banks use the SWIFT payment scheme, so your payment can take over a week, and because there are intermediary banks involved, you can incur extra fees.”

Grey addresses this by providing offshore accounts in the US, UK, and EU, making it possible to get a bank account in less than twenty minutes. “Another advantage of the accounts we issue is that they support the local and instant payment schemes unique to these countries, which makes receiving money even faster,” he added. “For example, if you get a UK account with Grey, it supports the FPS payment scheme, and if someone is sending you money from the UK, they typically use this scheme, so it’ll arrive in a few minutes.”

Drawing from Past Experiences

Reflecting on his previous roles at Busha, Paystack, and YellowCard App, Idorenyin acknowledged how these experiences have shaped his approach to leading Grey. “At Busha, I was a founding engineer, so I had first-hand experience on what building a startup feels like. The early grind, sleepless nights, and so on. At YellowCard, I joined at the seed stage – it was still pretty early as well, as I was the first member of the squad/team I joined. At YellowCard, we served customers from 10+ countries at the time – so that was also a unique experience. At Paystack, I joined when the team was more mature than the previous places; I joined post-Series A.”

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“I’ve experienced different phases of a startup, which has helped nurture me. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have worked with those great companies. I honestly didn’t know I’d become an entrepreneur, but looking back at my journey, it seems every step was preparing me for this moment.”

Sustaining User Growth

Grey’s success is attributed to solving a significant problem for customers. “The problem of receiving international payments has existed for a long time, and when a solution like ours comes, you see why there’s organic growth,” he noted. “Beyond that, there’s a certain level of excellence required to keep customers happy, and this cuts across all customer touchpoints. From how they perceive our messages on social media, to how we respond to them, to the product experience, and innovation. That’s the bar we’re constantly trying to meet and keep as high as possible to maintain our growth.”

Strategies for Global Expansion

“When your product serves customers across multiple markets, you want to be as adaptable as possible. Every market has its nuances; customers’ problems might slightly vary—even if they’re still the same fundamental problem. Customers behave and communicate in different ways, so we try to customize our product and entire experience as much as possible for customers in each market, and this is what we’ve done so far,” explained Idorenyin.

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“For instance, in some countries, bank accounts are more popular for keeping and spending money, while in other countries, mobile money wallets are more popular. In some countries, English is the primary language, while in others, it is Spanish or Swahili, and so on. These are just a few of the cases we evaluate for product expansion. We always try to understand these behaviors and adjust accordingly.”

Key Partnerships

Idorenyin also emphasized the importance of partnerships in Grey’s strategy. “Partnerships help us increase our market penetration and expand our customer offerings. We’ve had pivotal partnerships in recent times. Some years back, we announced a partnership with Cellulant. This collaboration enabled us to expand our services to East Africa. We partnered with Moringa School – which helps train tech talent.”

“More recently, we’ve partnered with Airalo and Insured Nomads – to provide eSims and insurance, respectively to digital nomads. We’re always looking to make the lives of our customers and community better, and we’re always on the lookout to work with the right entities to make it happen. We have a few more in the pipeline to be announced soon.”

Leadership Lessons from Football

Idorenyin draws parallels between football and managing a tech company. “The most successful clubs in the world have two things that strike me the most: culture and characters. The successful clubs have built a culture of excellence over the years. Culture in this context ranges from playing football a certain way, strategy in recruitment, attitude to promotion of academy players, what they quantify as a successful season, etc. It’s one thing to create that culture and another to maintain it over the years.”

“For any organization to be successful, you need characters – people who can execute, people who embody the culture you’re trying to create and maintain. In a club like Real Madrid, you see them sign certain players, and immediately they join, their aura is different, and they become better players. This is a factor of having character and the culture of the club.”

“These are two things I’m very heavy on at Grey: fostering that culture of excellence and innovation while ensuring we have the characters we need to execute and embody that culture.”

Staying Ahead in the Fintech Sector

Grey remains at the forefront of innovation by constantly reflecting on new technologies and their potential applications. “I like to think that as an industry/ecosystem, we’re at a ‘strategic inflection point’; a lot is changing technology-wise. This calls for internal reflection and we do this often at Grey. We ask ourselves, how can we optimize our product, and customer experience with the new technologies emerging.”

“One of the things we do at Grey is we have shorter roadmaps instead of a long-term roadmap – that way we’re super focused on what our customers are telling us, and the signals we’re seeing in the industry. So far so good, I’ll say we’re up to speed but we’re still on our toes.”

The Future of Work and Grey’s Role

“The pandemic accelerated the growth of the gig economy globally. I recently read a report by Deloitte, which predicts that freelancers, gig workers, and independent contractors will become the majority of the US workforce by 2027 and I believe this trend is likely to be mirrored worldwide,” Idorenyin shared.

“Organizations are recognizing the benefits of a flexible workforce. Hiring freelancers and remote workers allows them to fill specific roles with skilled individuals, bypassing expensive training and onboarding costs. We can expect more companies to outsource functions like HR, marketing, and payroll, relying on gig workers for specialized expertise on specific projects.”

“At Grey, we understand the changing landscape of work, and that’s why we will continue being at the forefront of the gig economy because that’s the future. We will continuously adapt and expand our offerings to cater to the specific needs of this growing workforce. Beyond our core strength in cross-border payments, we’ll develop initiatives and services that simplify the lives of freelancers and remote workers, ensuring the success of the gig economy and empowering the future of work.”

A Message to Users

“First of all, I want to thank everyone for trusting us with their payment needs. Our users have consistently referred us to others and posted positive tweets about their experiences with Grey on social media. I want to assure them that we see everything, and that their support keeps us going. Lastly, I want to inform existing and potential users that we have some fantastic initiatives in store for them in the coming weeks. So, if anyone has yet to start using Grey, now is the perfect time.”