Kwaba - Afrikan Heroes

Nigeria’s Kwaba Raises Pre-seed Funding For African Expansion

May 7, 2022

Kwaba, a Nigerian fintech startup that helps low and middle-income earners divide their annual rent into manageable monthly installments, has obtained a pre-seed round of funding to help it expand across Nigeria and Africa.

Obinna Molokwu founded Kwaba in January 2020 as a digital platform that facilitates home payment for Africans. It is aimed at Nigerians who want to pay rent in a modern fashion that represents their financial reality.

The firm also provides services such as apartment search, rapid funding at low interest rates, and additional credit facilities for property purchases. Over the last year, Kwaba received NGN115 billion in rent payment demands from over 30,000 consumers. Its smartphone app, which was introduced in August 2021, has around 2,000 downloads.

Kwaba has acquired an undisclosed amount of pre-seed money from Co-Creation Hub (CcHub) and other investors, after an investment from Ingressive Capital in 2020. In the same year, it participated in the LABS by ARM accelerator, receiving an additional US$20,000 in funding. Kwaba intends to expand across Nigeria and Africa with this round in order to provide more individuals with access to their solution.

“Kwaba is bridging the gap between real estate and finance. We understand the economic realities of Nigerian tenants and designed our product accordingly. As we expand, we hope to increase renters’ financial well-being. This additional investment comes at a critical juncture in our efforts to strategically reposition and extend our services “Molukwu stated.

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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. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh

Kwaba, Nigeria’s First Rental Financing Startup Secures Funding Round for Expansion

November 9, 2020

Nigeria’s innovative rental financing startup Kwaba has taken the first step towards its planned expansion program aimed at crowding opportunities to reach more subscribers. Kwaba which helps low and middle income earners to split their annual rent into convenient monthly installments has raised a funding round from Ingressive Capital to help it scale. Kwaba makes rent payment less stressful, and also offers further services such as apartment search, quick funds at affordable rates, and further credit facilities for the purchase of properties.

The funding raised will be deployed towards the expansion of its services and giving more people access to its solution, especially during these trying times post-COVID-19. Estimates suggest that about 60 per cent of tenants will not be able to pay their house rents in Nigeria in the coming months due to the impact of the pandemic, a problem that Kwaba believes it has the solution to.

It could be recalled that earlier this year, Kwaba took part in the LABS by ARM accelerator, banking US$20,000 in funding and additional growth support, has now raised funding from Ingressive Capital, a US$10 million VC fund targeting early-stage startups across Sub-Saharan Africa.

“By investing in Kwaba, we are helping the banked and the unbanked in Nigeria to have access to loans and credits that would give them a better life. COVID-19 financially impacted lots of Nigerians negatively and there has been a surge in the need for credit and we are glad that we can help make people’s lives a little better and provide shelter indirectly through Kwaba. We are glad to be a part of this innovation changing the housing industry in Nigeria,” said Uwem Uwemakpan, director of fund operations at Ingressive Capital.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry