Kwara, a Kenya-based fintech company has raised $4 Million in a seed round led by Breega VC. These funds will go towards the creation of an app to allow members to credit unions access to financial services.
Credit Union Members: The Growing Demand for Financial Services
Kwara is a Kenyan fintech company that helps credit unions. It has just raised its fourth seed round of $4 million. The startup plans to use the funds to build a “neobank” app that enables individuals to sign up with their preferred credit unions to access various financial services.
Breega VC was the lead investor in this seed round. Other participants included Finca Ventures New General Market Partners Globivest and Softbank Vision Fund Emerge. Rabacap Ventures, Launch Africa and Norrsken Impact Accelerator were also involved. Future Africa was Samurai Incubate with DOB Equity, Rabacap Ventures, Finca Ventures, Globivest, Do Good Invest, Future Africa, Samurai Incubate and other fintech angels joined the round.
Kwara, which was established in 2019, already offers its proprietary backend as-a-service software (BaaS), to Kenyan credit cooperatives and savings societies. However, as the Techcrunch report explains, the rise in the fintech’s clientele from just two to over fifty in space of just over two years prompted Kwara to moot building the app.
Explaining Kwara’s plan following the capital raise, co-founder and current CEO, Cynthia Wandia said:
By giving credit union members the type of neobank experience that they want, we aim to make them as efficient as possible.
Techcrunch reports that Kwara hopes the app will allow lending institutions new bordersless ways to sign up members. Credit unions will be able to move away from paper-based systems, as well as the necessity for complex brick-and mortar branches.
The Beta Test
Already, Kwara’s existing clients have experienced a membership growth of over 19% year on year, about three times the global average. The loan base for credit unions that use Kwara’s technologies increased by 46%. That is about five times as much as the national average.
David Hwan, co-founder of the app and also the COO revealed that the beta version was tested to verify its feasibility. He said that the app was being downloaded between 60% to 90%.
Kwara, a fintech that also works in South Africa (and the Philippines), claims it wants to double the number of credit cooperatives using its software, to 150, by 2022. On the other hand, Kwara is also aiming to increase the number of credit union members it serves from 60,000 to 100,000 by the year’s end.
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