Tether, Gnosis lead $4.4M seed for 10MB Sorted Wallet

Tether and Gnosis co-led a $4.4 million seed funding round in Sorted Wallet, the company announced. The financing includes $3.4 million in equity and $1 million in strategic support.

The equity portion was led jointly by Tether and Gnosis, with participation from Movement, Angel Invest Group and individual angels including the founders of RWA.io. Vox Solutions provided the $1 million in strategic support.

Sorted launched in 2022 and markets its app as a 10MB non-custodial mobile wallet. The company reported about 500,000 downloads, with the fastest-growing user bases in Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Bangladesh and Madagascar, and additional penetration in Central America, including Mexico.

The startup plans to use the new capital to expand in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia and to deepen integrations with mobile operators. Sorted also plans to roll out a new payment mechanism in May.

Paolo Ardoino, chief executive of Tether, described the firm as having “reinvested” in Sorted Wallet and called the app a solution for “everyone, regardless of device, economic status, or location.” He noted that digital asset use has shifted from trading to real-life payments and that broader access requires reaching people who cannot afford smartphones or large data plans.

Daniele Pinna, an investment partner at Gnosis, described Sorted as a “key distribution layer” for bringing stablecoin-based payments into everyday use and extending financial infrastructure to users outside the reach of traditional fintech. Gnosis is a crypto research and development studio that has spun out products including the non-custodial Safe wallet.

Tether's USDT stablecoin is widely used outside the United States as a low-fee transaction method in many emerging markets. Sorted says its small app size and mobile operator integrations are intended to lower technical and cost barriers for users on basic phones. The wallet is non-custodial, which means users retain control of their private keys rather than relying on a third party to hold funds.

The seed round comes as startups and established crypto firms pursue payment use cases for stablecoins and other digital assets in regions with limited banking access. The company says the funding will support regional growth, operator partnerships and the upcoming payment feature for basic mobile devices.