Umba, an African digital bank that offers free bank accounts and financial services to customers, has raised a $2 million seed funding round from new investors including Lachy Groom, ex-Head of Issuing at Stripe; Ludlow Ventures; Frontline Ventures, and Act Venture.
Umba which presently operates in Nigeria and Kenya provides an ecosystem of connected financial services that allows the customer complete control of their finances all in one App.
Commenting, The CEO of Umba Tiernan Kennedy said: “From the outset, we built our platform to serve multiple markets, currencies and payment infrastructures.
“This flexibility is an extremely important consideration as it’s much harder to upgrade your systems at a later date.
“For example, bank and debit card penetration is high in Nigeria, so Umba is deeply integrated into those payment methods, while across Kenya and East Africa mobile money is dominant so our platform is tightly integrated with those services, too.”
Ludlow Ventures partner Brett deMarrais said: “Umba is the first investment we’ve made in the African market and it’s one we were excited to participate in.
“The team at Umba have an excellent service that drives down the cost of banking for their customers and democratizes access.
“The move away from physical branch infrastructure was already underway and it has accelerated this year. It’s clear the African market is maturing and that we’re entering a very interesting phase.”
