Umba是一家面向新兴市场的数字银行，首先瞄准非洲，已从新投资者那里获得了200万美元的种子资金，这些新投资者包括Stripe发行前负责人Lachy Groom；拉德洛风险投资公司； Frontline Ventures和Act Venture。
Umba目前在肯尼亚和尼日利亚运营，可提供替代传统非洲银行的数字金融服务。它的移动应用程序为客户提供了免费的支票帐户，免费的即时点对点汇款，贷款，存款，BillPay和现金返还。这与非洲国家传统银行机构普遍存在的高成本壁垒形成鲜明对比。
目前，它在肯尼亚和尼日利亚提供服务，这两个国家的总人口超过10亿的四分之一。
Umba与Kudao，Carbon，Eversend和“芯片或现金”方法竞争。
Umba的首席执行官Tiernan Kennedy说：“从一开始，我们就建立了服务于多个市场，货币和支付基础设施的平台。这种灵活性是非常重要的考虑因素，因为以后很难升级系统。例如，在尼日利亚，银行和借记卡的普及率很高，因此Umba已被深度集成到这些支付方式中，而在肯尼亚和东非，移动货币占据了主导地位，因此我们的平台也与这些服务紧密集成。”
Ludlow Ventures的合伙人Brett deMarrais表示：“ Umba是我们在非洲市场进行的第一笔投资，这是我们很高兴能参与的一项投资。Umba的团队提供了优质的服务，可以降低客户和客户的银行成本。使访问民主化。远离物理分支基础设施的转移已经在进行中，并且在今年有所加快。很明显，非洲市场正在走向成熟，我们正在进入一个非常有趣的阶段。”
此前不久，Stripe以2亿美元收购了尼日利亚支付服务初创公司Paystack，并以2.88亿美元收购了DPO Group，并以5亿美元收购了Sendwave，此举显示出繁荣的生态系统打破了风险投资和收购的记录。
Umba, a digital bank for emerging markets and aiming first at Africa, has secured a $2 million seed funding round from new investors including Lachy Groom, ex-Head of Issuing at Stripe; Ludlow Ventures; Frontline Ventures and Act Venture.
Currently operating in Kenya and Nigeria, Umba offers a digital financial service alternative to legacy African banks. Its mobile app gives customers a free checking account, free instant peer-to-peer money transfers, lending, deposits, BillPay and cash back. This is in contrast to the generally high-cost barriers found among traditional banking institutions in African countries.
Right now it’s available in Kenya and Nigeria, which have a combined population of over a quarter of a billion people.
Umba competes with Kudao, Carbon, Eversend and “Chip or cash” methods.
Umba’s CEO Tiernan Kennedy said: “From the outset we built our platform to serve multiple markets, currencies and payment infrastructures. This flexibility is an extremely important consideration as it’s much harder to upgrade your systems at a later date. For example, bank and debit card penetration is high in Nigeria, so Umba is deeply integrated into those payment methods, while across Kenya and East Africa mobile money is dominant so our platform is tightly integrated with those services, too.”
Ludlow Ventures partner Brett deMarrais said: “Umba is the first investment we’ve made in the African market and it’s one we were excited to participate in. The team at Umba have an excellent service that drives down the cost of banking for their customers and democratizes access. The move away from physical branch infrastructure was already underway and it has accelerated this year. It’s clear the African market is maturing and that we’re entering a very interesting phase.”
The news comes shortly after Stripe’s $200 million acquisition of Nigerian payment service startup Paystack as well as the acquisition of DPO Group for $288 million and Sendwave for $500 million, showing a booming ecosystem breaking records in venture rounds and acquisitions.
