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Lagos-based FinTech Pouchers has raised $500,000 in pre-Seed funding and exited its beta phase, marking what it describes as the start of a new chapter for the cross-border payments startup.
The round was led by Stack Directory LLC, a Dubai-based internet investment firm, with participation from other strategic angel investors. Ayo Adewuyi, CEO of Pouchers, framed the pre-Seed funding as validation of a thesis the team had been testing since launch: that the cross-border payments space, though widely seen as saturated, still has significant room for a product built around what users actually need rather than one chasing an already crowded market.
“Grateful to every investor who backed us with unflinching support, and to every user who’s stuck with us along the way. This is just day one,” Adewuyi wrote on LinkedIn.
According to the company, the capital will be used to accelerate product development and scale the platform beyond what its beta phase allowed. Adewuyi said that the funding gives the company room to move faster and solve a problem that many Nigerians deal with directly: earning, working and transacting across borders without financial infrastructure built to support it. He added that such infrastructure should make that process easier, not harder.
Built for what it calls “global Africans”, Pouchers is a multicurrency wallet powered by stablecoins and designed for freelancers, remote workers, digital nomads, students abroad, and entrepreneurs who earn or spend in multiple currencies and across borders.
The platform allows users to fund their wallets with USDT or USDC across several blockchain networks, hold balances in currencies including USD, EUR, GBP, and CAD, and spend via virtual dollar cards that work with international platforms such as Amazon, Netflix, and Meta.
While it is powered by stablecoins, the company uses stablecoins as a settlement layer rather than a customer-facing product, doing away with the complexity of crypto and blockchain for users who simply want their money to move across currencies without friction. Pouchers is registered with the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) as a Money Services Business, and says it does not directly custody fiat funds, instead routing fiat services through licensed financial institutions and regulated partners.
During its beta period, Pouchers said it gathered real user transactions, feedback and support interactions and has used the data to shape the product it is now scaling. The $500k pre-Seed funding and beta testing allows the company to enter its next phase with a stronger product, clearer direction, and the resources needed to execute on it.
With the pre-seed round closed and beta now behind it, Pouchers said its focus going forward is to keep building what it calls “the one Pouch” its users need by continuing to expand its wallet, card and cross-border banking offerings for Africans transacting globally.
