Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business

#34: Kuda Bank - How Nigeria’s most popular Neobank is scaling to offer financial services to “every African on the planet”

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Overview: Today, we’re going to discuss Kuda Bank - the African neobank. We’ll explore the Kuda story across 6 areas:

  1. Neobanks in other emerging markets (Brazil & NuBank)
  2. African & Nigerian banking context
  3. Kuda's launch, early history, growth over time & fundraising
  4. Kuda's product & monetization strategy
  5. Competitive positioning, potential exit options
  6. Overall outlook


    7. This episode was recorded on July 25, 2021.


    Companies discussed: Kuda Bank, Nubank, Carbon, N26, Monzo, Chime, GTBank, Stanbic IBTC, Sparkle, Rubies, Monzo, Xinja, Chime & Chipper Cash


    Business concepts discussed: Neobank / Challenger bank / digital bank strategy, consumer FinTech monetization strategy, consumer lending, retail banking strategy, customer segmentation strategy & low-end disruption


    Conversation highlights:

    • (01:00) - Why we’re talking about Kuda Bank
    • (05:50) - Neobanks in other emerging markets - Nubank background
    • (18:30) - Africa banking background
    • (26:50) - Traditional banks vs Neobanks
    • (35:20) - Banking context in Nigeria; Nigeria’s banking sector
    • (47:40) - Founding and early history
    • (1:02:27) - Seed fundraising
    • (1:11:50) - Series A fundraising
    • (1:18:40) - Product strategy
    • (1:26:30) - GTM & partnerships strategy
    • (1:33:47) - Monetization strategy
    • (1:50:16) - Competition - Neobanks, traditional banks & other FinTechs
    • (2:05:00) - Potential exit options
    • (2:10:29) - Olumide’s overall thoughts
    • (2:18:18) - Bankole’s overall thoughts
    • (2:32:35) - Recommendations & small wins


      • Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

      • Recommendation: What did I spend my money on after selling twitch (by Justin Kan. Fascinating conversation about wealth, managing money after a windfall, investments, private companies, exits, etc) & The Everything store (by Brad Stone) - Amazing book, amazing story. Amazing company. Favorite part is when author talks about Jeff's most famous insults. Hilarious!
      • Small win: NYC trip last weekend - So much fun partying with friends.
      • Other content: Monzo is “struggling"


        • Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

        • Recommendation: Where you are is not who you are by Ursula Burns & Justin Kan interview of Conor White-Sullivan (YouTube)
        • Small win: I spent the last week in Lagos! New friends, stimulating conversations and catching up with old friends
        • Other content: Kudimoney pitch at Startup Bootcamp & 2015 NYTimes article on Amazon’s work culture


          • We’d love to hear from you. Please email [email protected] to share feedback or propose topics you’d like to hear.


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          Afrobility: Africa Tech and BusinessBy Olumide Ogunsanwo and Bankole Makanju
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