Kuda Bank, the Africa-focused challenger bank, has provided early investors an exceptional chance to exit their investment via a secondary sale after the recent announcement of a $37 million Series A Financing Round.
SM River, a consortium comprised of Raj Kulasingam, Haresh Aswani, Vishal Agarwal, and Alwin Magimay that was the primary investor in Kuda’s USD1.6 million pre-seed round, took advantage of the secondary sale to realize a significant return on their initial investment.
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In Kuda’s pre-seed round, SM River was the largest investor, and its stock was purchased by Kuda’s current investors.
“It was important to give Kuda’s earliest investors an exit opportunity, and we are delighted that we have been able to repay their early backing of the company with a material return on their investment. We are particularly grateful for the foresight shown by SM River in recognising the potential in Kuda during the company’s earliest days. They have been incredible investors and have provided Kuda with so much value beyond money by leveraging their knowledge, reputations and networks to help Kuda scale and grow,” Babs Ogundeyi, Kuda Founder & CEO, said.
Ogundeyi praised the investor and stated, “We’d want to express our gratitude to the consortium for their early involvement and support to Kuda’s achievement. SM River will renounce its membership on the Board of Directors in order to realize their investment in Kuda.”
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“When we met Babs and Musty, we saw the huge opportunity for their vision of the creation of Nigeria’s first digital bank and backed them to take advantage of this opportunity. It’s been an incredible journey of growth and scale and we commend the Kuda team for getting the company to where it is in such a short space of time. As angel investors, who focus on early-stage investments, it’s now time to recycle our capital, find the next Kuda and hand over the baton to institutional VCs to guide the founders to further scale and grow. We will continue to watch with pride as Kuda delivers financial innovation to Africa and the world,” Raj Kulasingam, speaking on behalf of the SM River Consortium, shed further insight on his departure.
This exit opportunity is another another example of Africa’s Fintech sector’s rapid development, demonstrating how Africa’s fast-growing technological start-ups are producing good returns and multiples for early investors and shareholders.
What Kuda Does
Kuda is a Lagos and London-based company. In 2019, it launched the beta version of its online mobile finance platform. The startup has also received its banking license from the Nigerian Central Bank, giving it a distinction compared to other fintech startups.
Kuda offers checking accounts with no monthly-fees, a free debit card, and plans to offer consumer savings and P2P payments options on its platform in coming months.
“You can open a bank account within five minutes, do all the KYC in the app, and you get issued a new bank account number,” said Ogundeyi.
Kuda was co-founded in 2018 by Ogundeyi and Musty Mustapha, a former Stanbic Bank software developer who exited classifieds platform Motortradertrader.ng and served in a finance advisory position for the Nigerian government. Nigeria was Africa’s largest economy and most populous country in 2014, according to the United Nations (with 190 million people).
Kuda Bank investors Kuda Bank investors
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer