Ovex
“Can OVEX become the dominant cross-border payments and FX liquidity infrastructure layer for African institutions by using stablecoins as the settlement rail?”
Founded2017
HQCape Town, South Africa
FoundersJonathan Brian Ovadia
Latest roundSecondary - Private
IndustryFintech / Crypto
The story
Founded in 2017 as a South African cryptocurrency exchange and OTC desk, OVEX initially focused on retail and institutional crypto trading, arbitrage, and interest accounts. Over time it repositioned as cross-border payments and wholesale FX infrastructure for Africa, leveraging stablecoin rails to replace SWIFT for emerging-market corridors. By 2024–2025 it was marketing itself primarily as 'emerging market liquidity at scale' serving 50+ institutional clients across 16+ active corridors, with crypto as the settlement layer rather than the primary product.
Last 12 months
Product timeline
2017
Founded in South Africa as a blockchain/cryptocurrency exchange platform focused on digital asset trading.· pivot
2018
Incorporated as Ovex (Pty) Ltd (Registration No. 2018/218598/07) in South Africa.· banking
2021
Expanded to Canada via Chameleon Capital (formerly Paygle Inc), registered as an MSB with FINTRAC for FX, money transferring, virtual currency, and PSP services.· pivot
2022
Launched OTC desk and broker platform, enabling institutional and corporate clients to trade digital assets and fiat at scale.· banking
2024
Pivoted positioning toward emerging-market cross-border payments infrastructure and wholesale FX, processing $222M+ monthly across 16+ currency corridors.· pivot
2025
Announced OVEX Cards product (spend crypto and fiat balances anywhere); waitlist opened.· card
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by Ovex
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
1 layer disclosed in Ovex’s embedded-finance stack
KYC
Accounting gap: significant