Juicyway, a Nigerian cross-border payments startup that helps businesses get FX for international transactions, has raised $3 million in pre-seed funding.
Led by P1 Ventures, the round had participation from Ventures Platform, Future Africa, Magic Fund, Microtraction, and angel investors Andrew Alli, Gbenga Oyebode, and Tunde Folawiyo.
Hisham Halbouny, co-founder and managing partner at P1 Ventures said;
“We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Ife, Justin and Idris as they tackle one of the most critical challenges in finance. At P1 Ventures, we seek audacious and exceptional founders like them—visionaries who aimfor to redefine industries and empower emerging markets,”
The company plans to use the funding :
- expanding its marketing and business development teams,
- improve its technology,
- scale its business in Nigeria, the US, the UK, and Canada.
About Juicyway
Founded in 2021 by Ife Johnson and Justin Ziegler, Juicyway is a marketplace that allows businesses and individuals to convert local currency to dollars and vice versa.
The startup serves both suppliers (businesses that are bringing foreign currency) and buyers (businesses that need to buy the foreign currencies )
Ife Johnson, Juicyway co-founder and CEO, explained the two types of customers’ ⁴further as:
“Those that wants to take local currency, convert it to US dollars, and make international payments via [our] banking partners [demand side] and
The second type of businesses want to leverage the accounts we provide to bring money into the continent and convert it into local currency to make disbursements [supply side],”
How It Works
On Juicyway, businesses make cross-border payments using stablecoins, like Tether and USDC.
This positions it as a hybrid decentralised finance (DeFi) and traditional finance (TradFi) payments startup.
Onboarded businesses on Juicyway, can choose to open a US Dollar (USD), Canadian Dollar (CAD), or a stablecoin wallet.
Juicyway is not a counterparty for the transactions.
Suppliers can set the prices and order limits they want to sell their foreign currencies. The buyers can buy the foreign currencies if they agree with the asking price.
This pricing system enables businesses to get good FX deals.
Juicyway makes money from transaction fees and spreads from transactions on its platform.
Juicyway started operations in November 2021 processing its first payment of $9.
Between then and now, the startup claims to have processed $1.3 billion in total payment volume (TPV) for over 4,000 customers.
The startup operates in four markets: Nigeria, the UK, the US, and Canada, and holds licences in all four markets:
- an Money Transfer Operator (IMTO) licence in Nigeria,
- a Money Services Business (MSB) licence in Canad
- an Authorised Payment Institution (API) licence in the UK.
- in the US where it operates through partner banks it has also received a phase 1 payments approval in Washington DC.
The company recently expanded its services to individuals.
So, individuals needing to make international payments or receive forex supply can also onboard with Juicyway.
The company will be looking to raise again in the next 18–24 months
