Kenya-based fintech, Kwara was founded by Cynthia Wandia in 2019 to help savings and credit cooperatives societies (SACCOs) in East Africa. The fintech company helps them (SACCOs) shift to the digital platform by providing them with its Backend-as-a-service (BaaS) software.

They just raised $4 Million in a seed round that will help them build a neobank app and will enable individuals to sign up with their preferred credit unions to access a wide range of financial services. In an interview with TechCrunch, she says “we (Kwara) want to make credit unions as efficient as they can be by giving their members the kind of neobank experience they wish they to have.“

The seed round was led by Breega VC and participants like Globivest, Do Good Invest, SoftBank Vision Fund Emerge, Finca Ventures, Future Africa, Launch Africa, Samurai Incubate, DOB Equity, Norrsken Impact Accelerator and angel investors.

They have begun working on the beta version and it has an uptake between 60% and 90%. The app will give power to the members who can view and download their financial statements, make repayments and apply for loans.

The app will be launched mid next year and members will be able to track their finance flows from the app. Kwara has supported $40 million in transactions, on the platform, between credit unions and their members.

Kwara expanded into the Philippines and South Africa after seeing the demand for its services grow beyond Kenya. The company currently serves about 60,000 SACCO members but are looking forward to crossing the 100,000 mark by the end of 2022. Their goal is to serve 1 billion people by 2030.

They have also begun partnering with foreign alliances to offer third party services on its app. They recently partnered with Lami Technologies, a Kenyan-based digital insurance company. The partnership will make a wide range of insurance products like life, business, health and property available and accessible on the app. 

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