Our Investment in Kudi
At Partech, we are always looking for entrepreneurs and products that challenge and transform existing markets.
So, when we met Pelumi and Yinka, the two Co-Founders of Kudi, and saw their impressive vision and ambition to make financial services accessible and affordable for all Africans, we knew we had to invest.
The Significance of Cash in Africa
In Africa, 90% of all transactions are still cash based. Particularly in Nigeria, with a large informal workforce, 80% of the population continue to be paid in cash.
With digital solutions growing, most products don’t address the sheer size of these figures and the true importance of cash in Africa.
Kudi: Digitizing the Cash Economy
However, Kudi and their ever-growing agent network makes digital payments compelling and easy for everyone to use.
Their incredible growth proves their potential to revolutionize the African cash economy.
Yinka and Pelumi launched Kudi in 2017, initially as a chatbot, to make money transfers and online bill payments easier.
Their theory was that by giving people more access to financial services, they could learn how to use digital products and profit from an uncomplicated and easy-to-use solution for the non techsavvy consumer.
Addressing the Unbanked Challenge
They soon realized that there was a bigger issue: The number of unbanked Africans. As the previously stated figures show, with payments predominantly in cash, most Africans don’t even own bank cards.
Yinka and Pelumi felt the need to build a product that could act as a gateway, facilitating the conversion of cash to digital and digital back to cash for the everyday consumer.
Their solution: an agent network that has grown to over 4,500 merchants. Their agents allow Kudi’s customers to easily make digital payments, top-up airtime, send and even withdraw money.
The agents act as a middle-man between the client and the app, digitizing cash or vice versa.
Tidjane Dème, our General Partner, underlined how “Agent networks are the backbone of African digitization as they offer an effective way of distributing digital services.”
“We believe that Yinka and Pelumi have the right vision to build the best platform for agent networks. The Kudi team has built an excellent product that their agents love to use.
As a result, Kudi has demonstrated an impressive growth since its inception.”
Their excellent solution, complete with the best customer service, has led to Kudi processing over $30 million in monthly payments. And the numbers keep on growing!
Along with Kudi’s other investors (YC, Khosla Ventures and several angels), we will endeavor to support the team in any way we can to help continue its remarkable growth.
With a potential of over 200,000 monthly active agents in Nigeria, Kudi plans to double down on their Nigerian expansion over the next 12 months as there is so much more room for growth.
Conclusion
We are so excited to welcome Kudi to the Partech family and can’t wait to see what this partnership brings in the future.
Discover more about Kudi on their website.
You can read the rest of “Why we invested in” collection here:
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