EditorCONSIDERING yesterday’s stock market close, Kuda Bank with $500 million valuation has become the 7th most valuable bank in Nigeria, even more than all tier-two banks combined.
The present fit puts the company’s Naira value at N205.75bn using the official exchange rate of N411.50 per dollar.
Prime Business Africa recently reported that Kuda Bank raised $55million in Series B round at a valuation that summed up to $500million, just a few months after raising $25million in Series A round, all in a bid to fire the bank’s expansion.
The London-based, Nigerian-operating financial technology (fintech) company is taking the country by storm with its mobile-first, a personalized and relatively cheaper banking services that are built on cutting edge technology which has grown in the last few months.
This is not the first time the fintech giant is raising funds to increase its capacity. In March when it had 650,000 registered users, the company raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Valar Ventures.
As at November 2020, Kuda Bank claimed to have 300,000 customers and was processing an average of $500 million worth of transactions per month. In March 2021, the number of users increased to 650,000 registered users. Presently, Kuda has about 1.4 million registered customers.
At the close of market yesterday, Kuda Bank’s valuation was higher than two traditional banks in Nigeria which includes Fidelity Bank with a valuation of ₦69.2bn, Sterling Bank with a valuation of ₦43.5bn and First City Monument with a valuation of ₦59.4bn.
CEO and Co-Founder Babs Ogundeyi stated that the company does not just want to expand within the Nigerian market alone, but also wants to use the funding to launch its platform in more countries in African continent. He stated that he wants to build a “new take” on banking services for “every African on the planet.”
“We’ve been doing a lot of resource deployment in Nigeria. But now we are doubling down on expansion and the idea is to build a strong team for the expansion plans for Kuda. We still see Nigeria as an important market and don’t want to be distracted so don’t want to disrupt those operations too much. It’s a strong market and competitive. It’s one that we feel we need to have a strong hold on. So, this funding is to invest in expansion and have more experience in the company with relation to expansion,” the CEO said.
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