Nigerian-based digital bank, Kuda Bank, has completed a US$25 million Series A funding round.
Kuda, which currently offers mobile-first banking services, announced the funding round, which was being led by Valar Ventures, the firm co-founded and backed by Peter Thiel, Target Global, and other unnamed investors.
Four months ago, Kuda raised US$10 million during its Seed round. The seed round, which was at that time, the highest funds to be raised by a start-up in a Seed round. Prior to the seed round, Kuda raised US$1.6 million in Pre-seed round.
Kuda CEO, Babs Ogundeyi, said in an interview that Kuda Bank plans to use these new funds to continue expanding its credit offerings, build out services for businesses, add more integrations and, move into more markets.
“At Kuda, we know that the companies which are best able to leverage technology and talent will be the same companies which are best positioned to provide huge numbers of people across Africa with access to a vastly improved financial system that places the customer at its center. We recognize the great strides that we have taken to get to the point at which we are now, but even more importantly we recognize just how far we still have to go to achieve our objective of providing every African with access to powerful, appropriate and affordable financial services,” Babs Ogundeyi said.
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The CEO further added that:
“With this in mind, we could not be more pleased that Valar Ventures has decided to come on board and join us on this mission. Their insights and experience in helping advise some of the world’s most successful challenger banks will without doubt be a critical part of our successes going forward.”
While making comments on the funding round, Andrew McCormack, a general partner, and co-founder at Valar noted that:
“Nigeria is at a tipping point in the adoption of digital banking, With the rapidly growing, youthful population who are open to new financial alternatives, Kuda is well-positioned to benefit and will transform the landscape of African banking. We are excited to lead their Series A and continue on the journey alongside Kuda.”
Kuda was Founded in 2017 by CEO, Babs Ogundeyi and the CTO, Mustapha Musty. It was initially launched as a lending platform, and called Kudimoney, before transitioning into a digital-only bank.
At the time of the Seed round, Kuda has about 300,000 users. However, the digital bank has increased its user base to 650,000; and has over a million downloads on app store.
The firm, which provides B2C and B2B banking services to customers in Nigeria, has processed transaction worth over $2 billion by February 2021. This is a leap from $5.2 million worth of transaction it processed in February 2020.