Umba, a digital bank for emerging markets, raises $2M Seed funding to expand across Africa –
Summary
Currently operating in Kenya and Nigeria, Umba offers a digital financial service alternative to legacy African banks. This is in contrast to the generally high-cost barriers found among traditional banking institutions in African countries. Umba’s CEO Tiernan Kennedy said: “From the outset we built our platform to serve multiple markets, currencies and payment infrastructures. For example, bank and debit card penetration is high in Nigeria, so Umba is deeply integrated into those payment methods, while across Kenya and East Africa mobile money is dominant so our platform is tightly integrated with those services, too.” Ludlow Ventures partner Brett deMarrais said: “Umba is the first investment we’ve made in the African market and it’s one we were excited to participate in. The team at Umba have an excellent service that drives down the cost of banking for their customers and democratizes access.