Nigerian Startup Breet Hits $1B in Crypto Transactions

Two Nigerian entrepreneurs watched someone spend an entire day trying to convert crypto earnings into actual spending money, bouncing between sketchy dealers and dealing with scammers. That frustrating experience sparked an idea that would process over a billion dollars.

Kayode Faturoti and Balogun Usman launched Breet in February 2021 with a simple mission: make crypto spendable. The platform lets users receive cryptocurrency and have it automatically converted into dollars, naira, or cedis, or sent straight to their bank account without even opening the app.

"The hard part should be earning the crypto, not spending it," Faturoti said. "And it definitely shouldn't feel like homework."

The founders didn't wait for investors or permission. They pooled their own savings, assembled a team of five, and built the first version themselves with zero outside funding.

Their timing was perfect but their approach was different. In 2021, everyone was piling into NFTs and digital money, but actually using that money felt like navigating an obstacle course. People were getting lowballed by peer-to-peer traders, deals were collapsing mid-transaction, and the whole process felt intimidating and technical.

Breet became the first platform in Africa to fully automate the conversion from crypto to cash. Users can pay bills directly with crypto, businesses can invoice in bitcoin and get paid in local currency, and developers can plug Breet's technology into their own products.

The company now serves nearly 500,000 users across Nigeria and Ghana. It has processed more than five million transactions and grown roughly 300 percent over the past two years, all while staying profitable without outside investment.

The Ripple Effect

What started as a consumer app has become infrastructure for an entire industry. Other companies now build crypto payment features on top of Breet's technology, letting businesses accept digital currency without holding it or understanding how it works.

The startup is preparing to expand into Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia, choosing markets based on user demand and crypto-friendly regulations. They're also developing stablecoin-backed crypto cards that will work anywhere regular cards are accepted.

"We took the most intimidating thing in fintech and made it feel like nothing," Faturoti said. "Because the point of money is to use it, not to study it."

Breet proves that solving real problems beats chasing hype, and sometimes the best innovation is just making complicated things simple.