Kuda — a Nigerian fintech startup that sets itself apart from the competition by building its services with its own banking license in hand — is on the rise!

Kuda Bank is an African challenger bank that has just closed a Series B in the amount of $55 million, according to TechCrunch.

The raise was made at a $500 million valuation for the London-based company which has been taking on incumbents in the country under its mobile-first, personalized and cheaper set of banking services all built on new and improved, API-based infrastructure.

As the company continues to set upon an extensive growth track, Kuda will use the money raised to not only implement new services for Nigeria but to also prepare to launch into more countries on the continent.

Co-founder and CEO, Babs Ogundeyi has plans for the banking services to become the go-to financial destination for “every African on the planet.”

“We’ve been doing a lot of resource deployment…in Nigeria,” said Ogundeyi in an interview with TechCrunch. “But now we are doubling down on the expansion and the idea is to build a strong team for the expansion plans for Kuda. We still see Nigeria as an important market and don’t want to be distracted so don’t want to disrupt those operations too much. It’s a strong market and competitive. It’s one that we feel we need to have a stronghold on. So this funding is to invest in expansion and have more experience in the company with relation to expansion.”

To date, Kuda has 1.4 million registered users which is more than double the number it had in March.

The latest round was co-led by existing investors of the bank which include Valar Ventures and Target Global.

At the time that the Series B round was initiated and closed, Kuda was not raising money. Other previous investors include SBI.

Nigeria. Neobank

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