Kwara, a Kenyan fintech digitising credit unions, has secured a $3 million seed extension. The latest funding round had the participation of existing investors DOB Equity, Globivest and Willard Ahdritz.
New investors include One Day Yes, Base Capital as well as fintech executives including Mikko Salovaara. The new funding brings the total seed amount raised by the startup to $7 million.
Kwara also announced it has signed an exclusive digital solutions distribution agreement with the Kenya Union of Savings & Credit Cooperatives (Kuscco), the national umbrella body representing saccos. more than doubled its client base last year, and it’s eyeing enormous growth in the coming years after
Following the Kuscco partnership, Kwara said it has gained connections to a pool of over 4,000 saccos for its banking-as-a-service offering. As part of the exclusive deal, Kwara is also set to acquire Kuscco’s subsidiary IRNET, a software company and provider for saccos, for an undisclosed amount.
Kwara, which also has a presence in South Africa and the Philippines, has grown its clientele base to 120 from 50 at the end of 2021, maintaining 100% customer retention — proof of the value it delivers to its clients. The automated onboarding process, the startup says, has ensured customer success and growth.
Cynthia Wandia “We continue to ship more or less enterprise-grade features for the large saccos that are well capitalized, the ones who are at the same size and level as some of the banks. There are specific features they need and specific ways they need to be taken care of so we will continue investing in that,” said Wandia adding that Kwara is also investing in improving the neo-banking experience. They are set to add more features that will help members build “a personalized view of their own goals and really start working towards achieving them.” They will also sign more third-party partnerships to add more value to the app users.
“We believe that every time a sacco member leaves their sacco to get another service just because the sacco doesn’t provide it is a missed opportunity for that member to actually profit from the returns of that product. All income earned on those products actually flows back to the members as dividends,” she added.
