According to reports from CoinDesk, Yellow Card has successfully raised $40 million in strategic equity funding to expand its stablecoin payment infrastructure. The funding round included participation from SC Ventures (Standard Chartered's venture arm), Sony Innovation Fund, and Polychain Capital. This latest round brings the company's total equity financing to more than $120 million since its founding in 2018, representing a significant increase from its $200 million valuation achieved in 2022. The company is currently valued at nearly $1 billion, though it remains below the $1 billion mark. The raise underscores how traditional financial institutions and corporate venture arms are racing to secure exposure to stablecoin-based payment networks.
As reported by CoinDesk, Yellow Card is working with commercial banks worldwide to utilize stablecoins and onchain payments for dollar transfers across borders. CEO Chris Maurice stated that the company is focused on bringing more dollars into markets and replacing legacy payment systems. Maurice emphasized that the industry's near future will see payments flowing directly between banks onchain without traditional B2B payment companies or service providers in the flow. The company is positioning itself to compete with established systems like Swift, which processes over 53 million secure messaging instructions daily for nearly 11,500 financial institutions. Maurice struck a forward-looking note: "This investment is a vote of confidence in what we've spent years building: the infrastructure that lets global businesses move money without a traditional correspondent banking. But 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."
According to CoinDesk, Yellow Card plans to use the new capital to expand its Global USD Accounts product and add stablecoin and local payment options in Latin America and Asia-Pacific. The Global USD Accounts allow businesses to hold dollars, hold and swap stablecoins, manage treasury operations, and collect or disburse local currencies through domestic payment rails in more than 50 countries. Maurice noted that the company's flows have historically been split roughly evenly between corporates and large financial institutions, with bank volumes now growing faster as large institutions adopt the system. Maurice reprised his previous statement: "Traditional payment companies continue to question not if they need a stablecoin strategy, but how quickly they can deploy one. We're connecting more banks, fintechs and enterprises to stablecoin rails so dollar access isn't just something a handful of institutions get to offer."
As reported by CoinDesk, since its founding in 2018, Yellow Card has facilitated more than $10 billion in transactions and holds licenses, authorizations, or registrations in 22 jurisdictions across North America, Europe and Africa. The company initially launched operations in Africa and has since expanded across fragmented country-by-country regulatory jurisdictions. Maurice, who co-founded the firm with Justin Poiroux, previously stated that they founded Yellow Card to take on big banks and Swift, with the company now competing in the global banking infrastructure space. The company's platform lets corporate clients hold dollars and stablecoins, swap between them, manage treasury, and collect or disburse local currencies using domestic payment rails, sidestepping the cost and complexity of traditional cross-border transfers.
The funding comes amid ongoing regulatory tensions, particularly highlighted by Ghana's central bank actions. In a June 10, 2025 circular, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) warned the public against "unlicensed digital platforms" and specifically named YellowPay — the stablecoin-based payments service promoted by Yellow Card — as operating outside the country's regulatory perimeter. Craig Stoehr, the company's general counsel, responded forcefully, stating that the firm had provided the Bank of Ghana with relevant facts well before the notice was issued, describing the central bank's decision to proceed regardless as "most unfortunate." The dispute underscores the fine line between financial innovation and regulatory compliance that continues to shape Africa's fintech sector. Yellow Card has consistently positioned itself as an advocate for regulatory clarity rather than a challenger to it, contributing to the development of similar regulations in Kenya, Zambia, Morocco and Rwanda, while holding regulatory approvals in Botswana, South Africa and several European jurisdictions.
