Standard Chartered, Sony back Yellow Card in $40 million funding round

Stablecoin payments infrastructure provider Yellow Card has secured $40 million in a strategic funding round to accelerate its international expansion and scale its Global USD Accounts platform for businesses.

The funding round attracted investments from SC Ventures, the innovation and investment arm of Standard Chartered, Sony Innovation Fund, Polychain Capital, Blockchain Capital, and other strategic investors, bringing Yellow Card’s total funding to more than $120 million.

The company said the fresh capital will be used to expand its Global USD Accounts, an end-to end-dollar account solution that enables businesses to hold U.S. dollars, manage treasury, swap stablecoins, and send or receive local currencies across more than 50 countries.

The latest funding follows a $33 million Series C funding round closed by the company two years ago, led by Blockchain Capital.

What they are saying

Chief Executive Officer of SC Ventures, Alex Manson, said the investment reflects confidence in Yellow Card’s role in building the infrastructure needed for stablecoin adoption across emerging markets.

• “Stablecoins are here to stay, but their adoption will depend on robust infrastructure and clear real-world utility. Yellow Card is building those rails for businesses across Africa, enabling them to access and move value efficiently across markets,” Manson said.

Yellow Card said the new funding will strengthen its presence in Latin America and the Asia Pacific region while expanding its payment rails and currency coverage globally.

According to the company, the investment from Sony Innovation Fund signals growing institutional interest in stablecoins for cross-border payments.

Austin Noronha, Managing Director at Sony Ventures US, said Yellow Card is positioning itself as a bridge between traditional financial systems and digital money as it expands into emerging markets beyond Africa.

Focus on banking infrastructure

Yellow Card’s Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Chris Maurice, said the funding validates years of investment in payment infrastructure that reduces reliance on traditional correspondent banking.

He said the company’s next phase of growth will focus on connecting banks directly to stablecoin payment rails to improve access to dollar-based financial services.

• “The bigger opportunity now is connecting banks themselves to stablecoin rails. When institutions plug into this infrastructure, they’re not just modernizing payments, they’re unlocking dollar access for millions of businesses that traditional correspondent banking has left behind,” Maurice said.

What you should know

Yellow Card is one of the digital asset firms seeking licensing in Nigeria under the Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme (ARIP) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

• In a recent interview with Nairametrics, VP of Global Operations and MD at Yellow Card Nigeria, Lasbery Oludimu, said the company has submitted an application to the regulatory body.
• According to her, ARIP is now propelling Nigeria to the forefront of global regulatory standards as it provides a structured pathway for crypto businesses to operate within a regulated framework.
• Meanwhile, the Nigerian government has taken the crypto regulation moves a notch higher with the release of guidelines on taxing all crypto transactions in the country.

The new Guidelines on the Taxation of Virtual Assets apply to companies, individual taxpayers, Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs), peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace operators, and other participants in Nigeria’s digital asset ecosystem.