In the ever-bustling world of fintech and cryptocurrency, few startups have made as significant an impact on emerging markets as Yellow Card. Founded in 2019, the pan-African fintech platform has grown to serve over 1.7 million customers across 20 African countries, raised more than $70 million in funding, and partnered with global giants like Coinbase and Block.
Driving its technological innovation is Justin Poiroux, the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, whose journey from a Bitcoin-obsessed teenager to a Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree embodies the promise of fintech to transform lives.
In an exclusive interview with Technext, Poiroux shared the vision, challenges, and future aspirations driving Yellow Card’s mission to make financial services accessible across Africa.
A simple yet powerful mission
When asked to distil Yellow Card’s value proposition into a single sentence, Poiroux does not hesitate:
“We make it easy for businesses to operate in challenging parts of the emerging world by enabling international payments, treasury management, and access to hard currency liquidity.”
This clarity reflects Yellow Card’s core mission: to bridge the gap between Africa’s fragmented financial systems and the global economy. By leveraging stablecoins, Yellow Card empowers businesses and individuals to navigate the volatility of local currencies and the inefficiencies of traditional banking systems.
Poiroux’s fascination with fintech began as a teenager, sparked by the release of the Bitcoin whitepaper in 2008.
“I was a teenager when the Bitcoin white paper came out, and I instantly became obsessed,” he recalls.
At the time, he had just opened his first bank account and had little exposure to fintech applications. Yet, Bitcoin’s decentralised promise captivated him, offering a glimpse into a future where financial systems could be reimagined
This early enthusiasm for blockchain technology shaped his perspective, blending optimism with a practical understanding of how centralised fintech and decentralised blockchain could coexist.
“I have always tried to build Yellow Card by taking developments and breakthroughs in both industries to better unify and co-mingle the technology,” he says.
Stablecoins: a game-changer for Africa
Yellow Card’s rise as a pioneer in Africa’s fintech landscape is closely tied to its adoption of stablecoins. Unlike volatile cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, stablecoins offer price stability, making them an ideal tool for transactions in regions plagued by unstable national currencies.
Poiroux recounts one key moment that underscored their value: meeting a Nigerian professor at a bank near his university, struggling to send money to his family in Lagos. The bank charged a staggering $90 wire fee for the transfer.
“We told him about how he could make this same transfer using Bitcoin for nearly free and instant, but even then it was not the full solution,” Poiroux explains. The family in Lagos needed a way to receive and convert Bitcoin into naira without losing value to market fluctuations.
Stablecoins solved this problem, offering a reliable, low-cost alternative for cross-border payments. It addresses two critical challenges in Africa: the volatility of local currencies and the high costs of traditional remittance systems.
By integrating stablecoins with local payment methods like mobile money, the fintech platform has created a seamless on-ramp and off-ramp for users, enabling them to convert fiat currencies into stablecoins and vice versa.
This infrastructure is particularly transformative for businesses, which can now manage treasuries, access USD liquidity, and make global payments without the friction of legacy systems.
Yet, building a platform that integrates cryptocurrency with local payment systems across 20 African countries is no small feat. Poiroux acknowledges the complexity of processing payments in emerging markets, where payment rail availability and reliability pose significant challenges.
“We have seen bank transactions get reversed over seven times over a week,” he says. “That’s not easy to programme for.”
To tackle these, Yellow Card’s engineering team developed a robust, multi-layered payments engine that integrates dozens of banking and mobile money methods. This engine employs advanced routing and processing systems to ensure payments are executed quickly and reliably.
The result is a platform that can handle the unpredictability of emerging market financial systems while maintaining a seamless user experience.
Looking ahead, Poiroux is excited about the potential of emerging technologies to enhance transactions. While blockchain remains central to Yellow Card’s operations, he believes advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and compliance technology will play a critical role in the next decade
AI is already enhancing transaction security through tools like automated fraud detection and customer behaviour prediction.
However, He is particularly optimistic about the adoption of verifiable credentials and decentralised identity systems. These technologies could streamline know-your-customer (KYC) processes, reducing costs for fintechs and improving user experiences.
“Verifying identity and knowing who your customer is can be extremely challenging in emerging markets,” he notes. A unified identity verification system could allow users to onboard multiple fintech platforms with a single set of credentials, minimising friction and costs.
Yellow Card’s shift from serving retail users to focusing on businesses reflects its broader vision: to create a global, interoperable financial system.
Partnerships with companies like Coinbase and Block enable Yellow Card to provide businesses in Africa with the tools to manage treasuries and access global markets, while global businesses leverage the company’s infrastructure to enter African markets seamlessly.
“The vision is that we can remove the barriers of money movement between emerging markets and the rest of the world,” Poiroux says.
Measuring Yellow Card’s impact and ensuring accessibility
With over 1.7 million customers and operations in 20 African countries, Yellow Card’s impact on financial inclusion is undeniable.
Poiroux measures this impact through the platform’s reach, particularly its ability to support the payment methods that Africans use daily. “I want every fintech and remittance company to support the continent and support the payment methods individuals use,” he says.
By enabling businesses to process payments reliably across diverse markets, Yellow Card is helping families and communities access affordable financial services.
Ensuring accessibility remains a priority, especially given Africa’s digital divide and varying levels of digital literacy.
In its early days, Yellow Card invested heavily in financial literacy, conducting tours across the continent to educate students and communities about stablecoins and personal finance. As the company shifts toward business clients, it focuses on infrastructure accessibility, ensuring that transactions are processed efficiently regardless of the user’s technical expertise or connectivity.
Balancing innovation and leadership
As CTO and co-founder, Poiroux juggles the demands of driving technical innovation with the responsibilities of scaling a rapidly growing company. His approach is cyclical: spending some quarters deep in operational details and others focused on architecting Yellow Card’s next big innovation.
The key to his success, he says, is building a strong leadership team.
“Having a team with such strong mutual trust and respect truly enables me to keep my head above water,” he explains.
Poiroux’s journey offers valuable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs. His advice is simple yet profound: “Stay focused and do not get distracted.”
In the fast-paced world of fintech and crypto, it is tempting to chase the latest trends, but Poiroux emphasises the importance of staying true to a long-term vision. “Real value is delivered by putting your head down and bringing your vision to life,” he says.
Poiroux is both excited and cautious about the future of fintech. The prospect of a global, interoperable financial system powered by stablecoins fuels his optimism. “This work we are doing and the work the broader stablecoin industry is doing are going to truly change the way money moves around the world,” he says.
However, he remains vigilant about the challenges of operating in a rapidly evolving ecosystem, where regulatory and technological shifts can disrupt even the most well-laid plans.
For Yellow Card, the mission remains clear: to make financial services accessible, efficient, and inclusive for businesses and individuals across Africa.
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