Sorted Raises $4.4M Seed Round to Bring Stablecoin Wallets to Feature Phones Across Africa
Stablecoin wallet startup Sorted has closed a $4.4 million seed round to accelerate its expansion across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, with a product proposition that most of the digital assets industry has not attempted: a fully functional crypto wallet that runs on a $20 feature phone.
The round was led by Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, and Gnosis Ventures, with additional participation from Movement, Angel Invest, and angels including the founders of RWA.io.
Sorted Wallet launched with a single design constraint: fit into 10MB and run on the low-cost feature phones that hundreds of millions of people across Africa and South Asia rely on as their primary, and often only, connection to the internet.
The bet has paid off. The app has been downloaded more than 500,000 times across 160 countries, including Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, and Bangladesh, with no paid advertising. The wallet operates on a self-custody model, meaning users hold their own funds without relying on a third-party custodian.
“Three years ago we built a wallet for a $20 phone,” said Stephen Browne, CEO of Sorted. “Nobody else thought it was worth building for. 500,000 downloads later, we know better. This round is how we find the next 100 million.”
Tether’s involvement is strategically significant. The company, which reports more than 570 million users globally, has a direct commercial interest in expanding stablecoin adoption beyond the high-income and crypto-native markets where penetration is already deep.
“To achieve true inclusion, we must reach hundreds of millions of people who cannot afford smartphones or data plans,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether. “That’s why we have reinvested in Sorted Wallet, ensuring that everyone, regardless of device, economic status, or location, can participate freely in the global economy.”
Gnosis frames Sorted as the distribution layer its decade of open financial infrastructure work has been building toward. “Sorted is a key distribution layer for bringing stablecoin-based payments into real-world use, extending accessible financial infrastructure to users beyond the reach of traditional fintech,” said Daniele Pinna, Investment Partner at Gnosis.
Sorted’s target users are not aspirational; they are already transacting. Kenyans using the wallet to send remittances to family members without bank accounts. Nigerians holding USDT as a hedge against naira depreciation. Tanzanian traders settling supplier invoices in a stable currency without multi-day clearing delays.
This is the segment that Movement, another backer, says the broader industry has consistently failed to serve. “They are building infrastructure for the people who need it most, not the people who are easiest to reach,” said Torab Torabi, CEO of Movement.
Marco Muccini, Venture Partner at Angel Invest, echoed the thesis: “By making stablecoin payments and remittances work on low-cost phones, the team is addressing one of the biggest gaps in financial access.”
Sorted says the seed capital will fund deeper integration with telecoms and mobile operators across its core markets, new feature development aligned with how users in those markets actually move money, and a broader geographic push across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
The company has not disclosed a user growth or revenue target, but the framing from its backers, and from Browne himself, positions the next phase as a market expansion play at scale, not a product iteration cycle.
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