Fingo, a Kenyan fintech that received backing from Y Combinator, has launched its neobank in collaboration with Pan-African financial institution Ecobank Kenya, after receiving a $4 million investment. This neobank is the first of its kind in Kenya, and was unveiled in the presence of the country’s president, William Ruto. Fingo was founded in January 2021 by CEO Kiiru Muhoya and co-founders James da Costa, Ian Njuguna, and Gitari Tirima to provide financial services to a fast-growing and financially marginalized young African population. The neobank promises to deliver financial services such as savings, insurance, and credit to its users at cheaper transfer fees, subsidized rates at pay bills, and cash-back rewards, among other features.

Fingo raised $200,000 in a pre-seed round, got into Y Combinator’s S21, and raised $4 million in seed funding from multistage venture capital firm HOF Capital, Hustle Fund, Verdant Frontiers Fintech Fund, Goodwater Capital, Launch Africa, Chandaria Capital, Naiban (Nairobi Angel Network), Discovery Ventures, Chui Ventures, and executives from Monzo, Twitch, Google, Facebook, and Paytm. Following this, Fingo signed a partnership with Ecobank and integrated its software with the bank while awaiting regulatory approval from the Central Bank of Kenya. The approval was granted in Q1 this year after CBK verified the data, transactions, and customer interactions between Fingo and Ecobank.

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The Fingo Africa app now offers its users a bank account under 5 minutes, paired with free peer-to-peer transactions and immediate access to multiple services such as savings, financial education, and smart spending analytics. Fingo claims to have acquired 10,000 active users with a waitlist of 100,000 customers within 24 hours of launching. Fingo plans to expand to the rest of East Africa by the end of the year and eventually roll out Pan-African products with Ecobank’s help.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert. 
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard