Idee Obong: Our New Logo, Website Aligns With Our Global Expansion Plans

Grey, a leading cross-border fintech company, has embarked on a significant global brand re-branding initiative, revealing a fresh logo and website design. This strategic move aligns with the company’s dynamic plans to expand its footprint in the global market. Its CEO and Founder. Idee Obong, shares insights into the rationale behind the re-branding, in this interview with MARY NNAH

Can you elaborate on the inspiration and strategy behind Grey’s recent global re-branding initiative, including the decision to unveil a new logo and website design?

In one word, our inspiration and strategy behind our rebranding is growth. As an organisation, we are growing and evolving and we aspire towards a future where we expand our user base, serving a global audience.

Taking the bold and necessary steps towards that desired future, we recognised the need for trademarks and other related processes. During the evaluation process, we came across similarities with existing marks, realising the previous logo was not usable in some foreign markets due to trademark conflicts with another company. This prompted us to undergo a deliberate and immediate rebrand.

Unveiling a new logo and website was a strategic move that aligned with our global expansion plans and desire to build a lasting community. It is also a visual representation of our commitment to innovation and excellence and a means to enrich our connection with our users.

Your official statement mentions a deliberate rebrand due to trademark conflicts and the aim to position Grey as a global. Could you provide more insights into these challenges and the strategy employed to overcome them?

As I mentioned earlier, we discovered during our growth evaluation process that similarities existed between our former brand identity and another existing in a different market. Realising this, we consulted our legal team and worked closely with them through this process to resolve any issues we encountered along the way.

The ideation process for the design of our new logo and website was a very thorough one. Our design team worked tirelessly to come up with the best design that would represent all we are trying to embody, we are glad that it all came together nicely.

With the celebration of surpassing 500,000 users and the notable growth, how has Grey adapted to the evolving demands in the fintech industry, particularly in the past year?

In the Fintech industry, there is a constant demand for new features, improved services and the need to meet the demands of an actively evolving user base.

In recognition of this, we have strategically taken steps to meet these needs. This year, we were able to reinstate the USD accounts and released the invoicing feature for creatives which was in high demand. We also rolled out the bill payment features and added Nigerian accounts. We have plans to roll out more features, making Grey a one-stop platform for payments in Africa and beyond.

Grey has recently committed to being people-centric. How does this ethos translate into the user experience, and what specific measures are in place to cultivate a lasting community?

At the beginning of our journey, we had one goal in mind, to provide seamless global financial services to our users and in doing so, build a lasting community.

A lot of our decisions are centred around our users, so naturally, through our rebrand process, we had them in mind which is why we decided to make the website easier to use and more colourful.

We are also continuously improving our customer service by training our staff and customer service team to provide our users with an unparalleled level of support and service.

In August, we held a party we themed “The Grey8 Escape” to put faces behind the ever-growing Grey community, to connect with them and have a good time.

We also have a blog on our website filled with resources for freelancers, remote workers and businesses

We have taken these intentional steps to exhibit excellence and build user trust that we hope to convert into a lasting community that has faith in the service we provide.

 In light of the challenges faced by the fintech sector in the past year, how does Grey envision navigating the opportunities and uncertainties in the industry’s future?

Challenges are springboards for innovation and opportunities sometimes present themselves in the face of uncertainties and as an organization built on the foundation of innovation we see ourselves rising to face any challenges the fintech industry might throw our way through the instrumentality of our people, processes and tools.

Admittedly, the challenges facing the financial industry might get better or not, this is difficult to predict due to the peculiarities of the Nigerian economy and the multifaceted nature of the fintech industry. What we at Grey can confidently say, is that we would always rise to the occasion bringing best-in-class services to our users and customers.

Grey has established key partnerships across both B2B and B2C sectors in Africa. Can you share more details about these partnerships and how they contribute to Grey’s reputation as a trusted cross-border payments company?

To evolve, expand and grow the community we aspire to have, we recognize the importance of partnerships and the value it brings to all parties involved.

Earlier in the year, we partnered with Work City, a co-working space to give our community access to a stylish and functional co-working space to aid productivity at a discounted rate.

Our partnership with Cellulant, a payment company in East Africa brought about the expansion of our services into the East African space, the same as our mutually beneficial partnership with Moringa School, a Kenya-based-ed-tech platform.

These partnerships demonstrate and reinforce our commitment to our vision which is to provide seamless global financial services to Africans everywhere.

Could you provide a glimpse into the specific innovations and enhancements that customers can expect as Grey ventures into this new phase?

We are constantly rolling out updates and innovations as situations demand. I can, however, say that in terms of product enhancement, we have several features we will be rolling out in 2024 and our users and stakeholders should be on the lookout for Grey in 2024.