African stablecoin infrastructure provider Yellow Card has raised $40 million in a strategic funding round led by SC Ventures, the innovation and investment arm of Standard Chartered, with participation from existing and new institutional investors, the company said.

The investors include SC Ventures by Standard Chartered, Sony Innovation Fund, Polychain Capital, Blockchain Capital, and additional strategic investors.

The company said the funding will be used to scale Global USD Accounts, Yellow Card’s end-to-end dollar account for businesses, and to expand the stablecoin rails connecting it to markets worldwide. The latest round brings Yellow Card’s total equity financing to more than $120 million.

“Stablecoins are here to stay, but their adoption will depend on robust infrastructure and clear real-world utility. Yellow Card is building those rails for businesses across Africa, enabling them to access and move value efficiently across markets. We believe YC is well positioned to scale across Africa and beyond and look forward to supporting its next phase of growth,” said Alex Manson, CEO of SC Ventures.

The funding is intended to support Yellow Card’s global expansion as demand grows for regulated stablecoin payment infrastructure in emerging markets, where cross-border transfers often depend on fragmented banking relationships and multiple local currencies.

“Sony Innovation Fund is actively investing across the web3 technology stack, and we are excited to back Yellow Card as it builds the stablecoin infrastructure layer that emerging markets need to move money faster, more reliably, and at global scale,” said Austin Noronha, Managing Director, Sony Ventures-US.

“By combining robust APIs, deep local fiat rails, institutional-grade security, and a strong regulatory-first approach, Yellow Card is making stablecoin-powered payments practical for banks, fintechs, and enterprises. As the company rapidly expands beyond Africa into broader emerging markets across LATAM, EMEA, and APAC, we look forward to supporting its vision of becoming a trusted bridge between traditional finance and the next generation of digital money.”

The company said it plans to accelerate product development, expand licensing efforts, and strengthen its cross-border payments network across emerging markets.

The investment comes less than a year after reports that SC Ventures was preparing to raise a dedicated digital asset fund in 2026, underscoring Standard Chartered’s growing commitment to on-chain financial infrastructure. Rather than backing speculative crypto businesses, the bank has increasingly focused on regulated digital asset infrastructure, tokenization, and institutional payment networks.

Yellow Card has become one of Africa’s largest stablecoin infrastructure providers, operating across more than 20 African markets and supporting cross-border settlements in over 50 local currencies. The company has expanded beyond retail crypto trading into enterprise payment rails, partnering with global firms including Mastercard and serving businesses that use stablecoins for treasury management and international settlements.

“This investment is a vote of confidence in what we’ve spent years building: the infrastructure that lets global businesses move money without a traditional correspondent banking. But the bigger opportunity now is connecting banks themselves to stablecoin rails.

When institutions plug into this infrastructure, they’re not just modernizing payments, they’re unlocking dollar access for millions of businesses that traditional correspondent banking has left behind.

Money should move at the speed and convenience of the internet, and increasingly, banks want to move with it,” said Chris Maurice, CEO and Co-Founder of Yellow Card.

Yellow Card has facilitated more than $10 billion in transactions across its network. The company supports more than 50 currencies and holds relevant licenses, authorizations, and registrations in 22 jurisdictions across North America, Europe, and Africa. Strategic partnerships with VISA, MasterCard, PayPal, and Coinbase have positioned the company as an infrastructure layer for global payments players.

The raise highlights continued institutional interest in stablecoin infrastructure despite a broader slowdown in crypto venture funding, with global banks increasingly viewing regulated dollar-backed stablecoins as a foundation for faster and cheaper cross-border payments.