#34: Kuda Bank - How Nigeria’s most popular Neobank is scaling to offer financial services to “every African on the planet”
Afrobility: Africa Tech and BusinessJuly 25, 2021
34
02:41:49222.24 MB

#34: Kuda Bank - How Nigeria’s most popular Neobank is scaling to offer financial services to “every African on the planet”

Overview: Today, we’re going to discuss Kuda Bank - the African neobank. We’ll explore the Kuda story across 6 areas:

  1. Neobanks in other emerging markets (Brazil & NuBank)
  2. African & Nigerian banking context
  3. Kuda's launch, early history, growth over time & fundraising
  4. Kuda's product & monetization strategy
  5. Competitive positioning, potential exit options
  6. Overall outlook


This episode was recorded on July 25, 2021.


Companies discussed: Kuda Bank, Nubank, Carbon, N26, Monzo, Chime, GTBank, Stanbic IBTC, Sparkle, Rubies, Monzo, Xinja, Chime & Chipper Cash


Business concepts discussed: Neobank / Challenger bank / digital bank strategy, consumer FinTech monetization strategy, consumer lending, retail banking strategy, customer segmentation strategy & low-end disruption


Conversation highlights:

  • (01:00) - Why we’re talking about Kuda Bank
  • (05:50) - Neobanks in other emerging markets - Nubank background
  • (18:30) - Africa banking background
  • (26:50) - Traditional banks vs Neobanks
  • (35:20) - Banking context in Nigeria; Nigeria’s banking sector
  • (47:40) - Founding and early history
  • (1:02:27) - Seed fundraising
  • (1:11:50) - Series A fundraising
  • (1:18:40) - Product strategy
  • (1:26:30) - GTM & partnerships strategy
  • (1:33:47) - Monetization strategy
  • (1:50:16) - Competition - Neobanks, traditional banks & other FinTechs
  • (2:05:00) - Potential exit options
  • (2:10:29) - Olumide’s overall thoughts
  • (2:18:18) - Bankole’s overall thoughts
  • (2:32:35) - Recommendations & small wins


Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

  • Recommendation: What did I spend my money on after selling twitch (by Justin Kan. Fascinating conversation about wealth, managing money after a windfall, investments, private companies, exits, etc) & The Everything store (by Brad Stone) - Amazing book, amazing story. Amazing company. Favorite part is when author talks about Jeff's most famous insults. Hilarious!
  • Small win: NYC trip last weekend - So much fun partying with friends.
  • Other content: Monzo is “struggling"


Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:


We’d love to hear from you. Please email info@afrobility.com to share feedback or propose topics you’d like to hear.


Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes at Afrobility.com