The Nigerian fintech, Nomba, formerly known as Kudi, has secured a pre-Series B funding round of $30 million which will be used to provide customized payment solutions for African companies.
Nomba was started in 2016 as ‘Kudi.ai,’ a chatbot integration that responds to financial requests on social apps. Since then, the company has undergone various changes and has become a profitable entity creating innovative products that enable businesses accept payments.
Nomba provides payment solutions, management tools, and banking services to over 300,000 businesses, helping them improve their processes and operate more efficiently. With a monthly transaction volume of US$1 billion, Nomba holds a leading position in the African market for payment service providers in terms of gross transaction value (GTV).
The oversubscribed equity funding round was led by San Francisco-based Base10 Partners, with several participants including:
- Helios Digital Ventures
- Shopify
- Partech
- Khosla Ventures
The YC-backed company wants to utilize the funding to provide customized payment solutions tailored to the specific needs of businesses helping them:
- Address any gaps in their payment processes
- Enhance their operational efficiency, and
- Improve customer experiences
For instance, the startups wants to unveil a POS device called Nomba MAX which restaurants can use to access menus, manage inventory, and process payments all in one place. Transport and logistics companies can directly link their transactions to payments resulting in a more streamlined process that can boost sales and profitability.
“We know that medium to large enterprise merchants have payment problems which are usually infrastructure based. So while our solutions help them improve success rates on transactions, we don’t think being a payment provider is good enough,” said Co-Founder, Yinka Adewale.
The Nigerian company plans to expand its business tools beyond payment solutions to include invoicing and order management solutions among others to help improve efficiency and reduce costs for businesses across Africa.
“We see payment as a business model not just a product and we want to make it easier for businesses to take advantage of all that is possible in their payment processes to support their continued growth and success. We have a long list of products we have been working on and the funds we have raised as well as the investors that have backed us gives us a lot of confidence about what can be achieved with more effective payment solutions in the hands of business owners,” Adewale said.
At the same time Luci Fonseca, partner at Base10, sees Nomba as one of the most exciting startups in Africa due to its track record of innovation and capital efficiency.
“We are thrilled to be supporting them to deliver their game changing solutions to power growth and continued success for businesses in Nigeria and beyond,” she said.
_____________________________________
