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Elevate: Fintech for Freelancers – A YC-Backed Success Story from Sudan’s War-Torn Beginnings

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For them, the difficulty hasn’t been opening local USD accounts; it’s been cost-effectively facilitating payments from international employers and online platforms. “Using local products meant many remote workers had large chunks of their earnings eaten away with excessive fees. The USD products couldn’t be local,” said Oudjidane, who is also the founding partner of emerging markets fintech fund Byld Ventures. “The product would need to move to offering U.S.-based USD accounts,” accounts that, critically, would facilitate ACH payments to enable those freelance payments and came with the security that you get with U.S. banking, such as FDIC assurance. “Freelancers and remote workers in these markets will undoubtedly be a critical source of foreign income to help rebuild,” Oudjidane said.

“$1.5M Pre-Seed Raised by Cleva, an African Fintech Supported by Y Combinator and Former Stripe & AWS Members”

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Nigerian fintech Cleva, focused on creating a banking platform for African individuals and businesses to receive international payments by opening USD accounts, has raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding. “The team is uniquely qualified to address this given their experience building banking products at Stripe and robust platforms at AWS. Both founders share a strong connection with the African market. (It’s worth highlighting that while Cleva exclusively provides USD accounts, other players offer GBP and EUR accounts.) Meanwhile, the YC-backed startup, which generates revenue when users swap and exchange their funds (in USD accounts) for the local currency (in naira for now), also charges a 0.9% fee on deposits into customers’ USD accounts.