Regulated rails for money that crosses borders.
I'm Babs Lawal, a cofounder of Busha, Yousend and SureGifts. I've been building financial products for Africans at home and abroad since 2014. My day job now is technology operations: keeping licensed platforms running, and inside the rules, in every market we operate in. I live in Chelmsford, Essex.
Over one million people use Busha, the exchange I cofounded in 2018, on a platform licensed by the CBN and SEC.
- Licences and registrations across the group
- 5
- Receiving countries on Yousend
- 5
- Building financial products since
- 2014
Money should move as freely as the people who earn it.
It started with SureGifts in 2014: gift cards, vouchers and employee rewards for people and businesses in Nigeria, and from 2016 in Kenya. Busha followed in 2018, a crypto exchange that has grown to over a million users and is now expanding into the UK. Yousend is the newest, founded in 2026 to move money on stablecoin rails from the UK, Canada, Europe and the USA into Africa, and licensed in the UK, Canada and Nigeria.
Most of my time goes on technology operations: the systems, controls and processes that let an exchange and a remittance platform serve over a million people without breaking, and the work of keeping them inside the rules wherever we operate. I do that with my cofounders and our team in Lagos. I live in Chelmsford, Essex, and work across Nigeria, the United Kingdom and Canada.
- Based
- Chelmsford, Essex
- Focus
- Technology operations
- Licensed by
- CBN · SEC · FCA · FINTRAC · IMTO
Companies I've cofounded or operate.
04 · What we've built and backed- 2018Busha2018Crypto exchange in Nigeria and Kenya, over one million users, expanding into the UK.CofounderCBN · SEC
- 2026Yousend2026Stablecoin remittances from the UK, Canada, Europe and the USA to five African countries.CofounderFCA · FINTRAC · IMTO
- 2014SureGifts2014Gift cards, vouchers and employee reward programmes in Nigeria and Kenya. The first company, still growing.CofounderNG · KE
- —Hacked VenturesThe vehicle my cofounders and I use to back a small portfolio of startups.CofounderPortfolio
Notes on crypto, remittances and regulation, written when there's something worth saying.
- PaymentsWhy stablecoins, AI and remittance belong in the same sentenceSEPT 2026
- InfrastructureThe off ramp is the productSEPT 2026
- RemittanceThe fee is not the pointSEPT 2026
Write to me.
If you're sending money to Africa, looking for an offramp partner in Nigeria, Kenya and across Africa, run a company that needs corporate gifting or employee rewards, or have a startup Hacked Ventures should see, I'd like to hear from you.
me@babafemilawal.com