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Kwara
Neobanking for credit unions
- 21-100 employees
- Fintech
- B2B
- Banking
- SaaS
- Mobile
- Social Impact
- Upper Hill Estate, Nairobi, Nairobi County
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Company mission
To make building wealth together frictionless.
42% employee growth in 12 months
Our take
There are over 15,000 registered co-operative financial institutions in Kenya, working as crucial financial services for over 10 million people. However, co-operatives are very often excluded from the digital financial sector leading to poor services and fraud. That’s the reason Kwara exists.
By building a whitebox banking-as-a-service platform, the company has enabled Savings and Credit Cooperatives and Non-Bank Financial Institutions to dramatically improve their operational functioning, solvency, and credit scoring capabilities. In attempting to revolutionize as analogue an industry as it gets, Kwara has taken on an ambitious mission, and may need to be patient with customers and their long-established practices as it seeks to grow.
Despite this, Kwara managed to more than double its client base in 2022, and has secured a $3 million seed extension that comes alongside an an exclusive digital solutions distribution agreement with the Kenya Union of Savings & Credit Cooperatives (Kuscco). This will help the company as it "doubles down on Kenya" - funding plans to add more features to cater to cooperatives, as well as additional products for neobank app users.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Benefits
- Annual salary review
- Team events
- Medical insurance
- Parking credits
- Swag
- High degree of autonomy
- Flat hierarchy and open communication
- Accelerated personal growth opportunity
Company values
- Always Be Learning
- Care For The User
- Enjoy The Ride
- Be Clear and Truthful
- Strength in Diversity
- We Go Together
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
Jan 2023
$3m
SEED
Nov 2022
$2m
SEED
Total funding: $9.3m
This company has top investors
Leadership
Cynthia Wandia
(CEO)Is a Kenyan electrical engineer, corporate executive and entrepreneur. Worked at E.O.N as a Fleet Performance Analyst and Special Projects Manager before co-founding another venture, Astra Innovations, a power plants investor.
David Hwan
(COO)Co-founded and led an incubator in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, Forward Incubator, that coached entrepreneurs from the MENA region. Also worked in the M&A department of PwC and as a tutor at Amsterdam Business School.