Nigeria’s Kuda Takes Digital Banking Play To The UK
Kuda, the London-based and Nigerian-operating startup taking on incumbents in the country with a mobile-first and personalized set of banking services, is expanding to the U.K. by offering a remittance product to Nigerians in the diaspora. The startup, founded by Babs Ogundeyi and Musty Mustapha, is a U.K.-based fintech that offers financial services to Africans (starting with Nigerians) within and outside Africa. As such, services provided to Nigerian users are facilitated via its subsidiary, Kuda MFB Limited. On the other hand, Kuda EMI Limited is the other subsidiary in charge of the newly launched services, one of which is remittance, to Nigerians in the U.K.
In addition to remittance, Kuda intends to provide direct debits and local transfers to Nigerians in the U.K. down the line. The plan suggests that the Nigerian-born fintech, having raised more than USD 90 Mn from investors such as Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures and Target Global, thinks it has enough firepower to take a small piece of other neobanks’ cakes, such as Revolut, Monzo, and Wise. Kuda, like many neobanks, will rely on a third party, usually a banking-as-a-service platform, to provide these financial services. The platform in question for Kuda is Modulr, an embedded payments platform for digital businesses to offer a mobile wallet, virtual and physical cards, local U.K. transfers, and direct debits.
