ImpactAlpha, August 4 — More than half of adults in Africa still don’t have access to banking and financial services, including mobile money accounts. San Francisco and Lagos-based Umba aims to bridge the financial inclusion gap with products and services for the underserved.
The fintech startup is acquiring a 66.6% stake in Daraja, a Kenyan microfinance institution, to build up its presence in Kenya.
Umba, which offers unlimited free and flexible money transfers, cash back for online bill payments, and low-interest loans to customers, raised $15 million in a pre-Series A round in April to support its pan-African expansion.
Umba’s investment “will support the digitization of Daraja as it moves to providing ‘anytime, anywhere’ services to its customers,” the Central Bank of Kenya wrote on the transaction. “This is aligned to CBK’s vision of a microfinance banking sector that works for and with Kenya.”
