Kuda, the African money app, has won the 2023 Africa Fintech Summit (AFTS) Excellence In Fintech award, which was awarded by the Africa Fintech Summit (AFS) in Washington.
The startup took the limelight, beating out four other prominent African fintechs – TymeBank, Moniepoint, FairMoney, and MNT-Halan – to win the award.
Kuda, along with the other four fintechs, was nominated for the prize earlier this year by the Africa Fintech Summit. The award winner was chosen via an open voting procedure.
At the Africa Fintech Summit event in Washington, DC, a representative from Kuda accepted the prize on behalf of the company.
Read also: Kuda enhances its app to enhance customer experience, improve UK-Nigeria transfers
The fintech company CEO thanked the AFTS team for the honour
Babs Ogundeyi, the Founder/CEO of Kuda, commented on the prize, saying that the firm, and indeed the whole team, were thrilled to receive the Africa Fintech Summit’s 2023 Excellence In Digital Banking award.
He said that the award recognised the team’s dedication and perseverance in developing new solutions that expand access for Africans living on the continent and in the Diaspora to inexpensive and high-quality financial services at all times.
“In almost four years of building the money app for Africans, awards like this have been a meaningful acknowledgement of the work we are doing to make financial services accessible, affordable, and rewarding on the continent and in the diaspora,” he said.
Ogundeyi celebrated the other candidates and appreciated everyone who voted for Kuda to win the award. He also thanked the AFTS team for the honour, promising them that the Kuda team would continue to do so.
“Beating out four other fast-rising African fintechs for this award is no small feat, and I’m excited about the next phase of our mission to make financial services accessible and affordable to all Africans.” Congratulations to the whole Kuda team,” Ogundeyi said.
Kuda aim to provide Africans with internet-enabled smartphones a full-fledged bank account
Since its inception in early 2018, AFTS has hosted over 4,000 stakeholders from over 100 nations, making it the biggest bi-annual meeting of financial technology stakeholders on the African continent. The AFTS was established in 2017 with the goal of bringing together the challenges, trends, and changemakers shaping Africa’s financial technology ecosystem.
Mr Ogundeyi and Musty Mustapha co-founded Kuda, a fintech business that operates noin Nigeria and the United Kingdom, in 2019. The fintech company’s goal is to provide Africans with internet-enabled smartphones with the ability to manage a full-fledged bank account, save and earn interest, obtain immediate credit, and transfer money without expensive costs.
Kuda was also named one of the WEF’s seven African technology startups to watch in 2021. The financial services company is now valued at $500 million and has collected more than $90 million from investors such as Target Global and Valar Ventures.
Kuda is peculiar among neo banks in that it is developing its services while possessing its own banking licence. This allows it to be more flexible and fast-moving when developing new products or refining old ones. It also gives the firm more credibility in an area where individuals who previously banked with incumbents may be skeptical of new entrants.
