Nigerian challenger bank raises $55m
Kuda Technologies, the challenger bank for Africa, has raised $55 million in a series B fundraising round co-led by Valar Ventures and Target Global, with participation from the company’s existing backers including SBI and several angel investors.
The raise comes just four months after Kuda’s $25 million series A round, completed around the time the bank hit the 650,000-customer milestone.
Launched in Nigeria in 2019, Kuda has grown to have more than 1.4 million customers and earlier in 2021, launched a credit facility that has seen the bank disburse over $20 million in overdrafts to a segment of its customers so far.
The fresh capital will help drive the bank’s plans to expand to select countries in Africa.
Babs Ogundeyi, CEO and co-founder of Kuda said, “We’ve deployed a lot of resources in Nigeria over the past couple of years and we will continue to prioritise that market, but we’re also ready to take affordable banking to other African countries. This round of funding will help us build a strong expansion team and move our plans forward.”
Commenting on behalf of Valar Ventures, general partner and co-founder, Andrew McCormack said, “Kuda is our first investment in Africa and our initial confidence in the team has been upheld by its rapid growth in the past four months. With a youthful population eager to adopt digital financial services in the region, we believe that Kuda’s transformative effect on banking will scale across Africa and we’re proud to continue supporting them.”
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