After the Covid-19 pandemic hit, currencies in emerging markets across Africa and Asia suffered significant devaluation against major trading currencies, driven by the global economic downturn.
At one point in 2023 for instance, the Kenyan shilling traded at Sh160 against the United States dollar from an average of Sh100 in 2019, putting people who relied on global payment systems at a disadvantage.
Around the same time, crypto currencies such as Bitcoin and USDT stablecoin, were emerging as a viable option for protecting money against inflation and currency devaluation.
However, most of the digital wallets that could enable users to trade using crypto currencies were designed for users in developed economies, who could access fast internet, powerful smartphones, and a level of financial literacy that many users in emerging markets did not yet have.
This gap inspired Stephen Browne, Brian Elders, Jure Zih, and Shishir Gupta to build Sorted Wallet—a crypto wallet targeted at meeting the needs and realities of emerging markets.
“Most crypto apps were built for people with the latest smartphones, fast internet, and banking access — that is not the reality for millions across Africa and Asia,” said Shishir Gupta, Managing Director, Sorted Wallet, in an interview with Powering SMEs.
With the majority of users in these markets unable to afford smartphones that could support available Web3 applications, the team built the platform in a way that it could run on feature phones and older Android devices.
This meant that they had to drastically reduce the app size, as well as simplify the crypto jargon into local dialect, so that users could easily understand what the app does and how it could serve them.
The crypto wallet app would be supported on KaiOS, which is the operating system that powers feature phones, and would require roughly 10 megabytes to download, depending on the type of device and version.
“We wanted to make crypto feel like money—familiar, usable, and safe. That meant local currency display, easy send-and-receive options, and clear use-cases like remittance, utility payments and saving,” explained Gupta.
While the approach was good on paper, penetrating emerging markets would not be very easy, due to the limited infrastructure challenges, policy and regulatory bottlenecks, as well as the fragmented payment systems.
In addition to that, obtaining trust in these markets would be no walk in the park, especially in light of the growing global concerns around crypto scams and volatility.
To overcome this hurdle, the company added in-app educational content and partnered with local organisations in countries like Tanzania, Kenya and Cameroon to conduct financial training and on-ground activations.
“Education is at the heart of adoption. We realised early that building trust meant not just offering tools, but teaching people how to use them safely, as well,” said Gupta.
Balancing simplicity with security would also be key, therefore the founders had to find a way to incorporate features such as local device encryption, regular security audits and app updates, pin protection, among others, to prove to users that their savings would be safe.
“Sorted Wallet is a non-custodial wallet — meaning only the user controls their assets and private keys. We never store user funds and no sensitive data is stored on our servers,” explained Gupta.
The founders say that since inception in March 2023, the crypto wallet app has so far been adopted by about 250,000 users across Africa and Asia, with popular markets in Africa including Nigeria, Tanzania, Cameroon, Angola, Ethiopia, Uganda, Benin, Kenya, Egypt and Madagascar.
“Our growth has been entirely organic in many regions, driven by word-of-mouth, local partnerships, and community activations,” stated Gupta.
Currently, users can perform actions such as making utility bill payments, as well as store, send and receive Bitcoin and USDT via the Sorted Wallet app.
The company recently introduced a new ‘request remittance’ feature into the platform, to enable users to request for overseas remittances via shareable links, thus receiving funds into their wallets seamlessly.
“Remittances fuel Africa’s economy, exceeding $100 billion (Sh12.9 trillion) in 2024. To make receiving funds easier, we introduced ‘request remittances’—a seamless way to request and receive funds with clarity,” said Gupta.
The company, made up of a workforce of about 12 permanent staff and local ambassadors in their key markets, plans to launch a merchant app that will enable businesses to accept crypto as a form of payment.
The company also plans to pilot a USDT top-up card in Kenya, that will enable the general public to make transactions more easily, as well as rollout a feature known as ‘bitcoin lightning’ for faster transactions.
“As crypto currencies emerge as a viable way to transact, our ultimate goal is not just to build a wallet, but to build infrastructure that will support this financial revolution across the continent,” remarked Gupta.
