Kenyan Startup Kwara Raises USD 4 Mn Seed Round

Kenyan startup Kwara, which is helping to turn traditional savings cooperatives into modern digital banks, has raised a USD 4 Mn seed funding round to develop its neobank app ahead of its upcoming release. The round was led by Breega, and also includes SoftBank Vision Fund Emerge, Finca Ventures, New General Market Partners, Globivest, Do Good Invest, Rabacap, Launch Africa, Norrsken Impact Accelerator, Future Africa, Samurai Incubate, and DOB Equity. Several fintech executives also participated including, founders of Meltwater, The Flex Company, and ComplyAdvantage, and executives from Salesforce and PayPal.

Kwara has built a digital banking platform designed to help unbanked and underbanked individuals build wealth together in a frictionless way. It offers a management platform to drive efficiency and automation at the cooperative staff level and also has a neobank-style mobile banking app for end clients, alongside alternative channels.