By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigerian fintech startup, Kwaba, which helps low and middle-income earners to split their annual rent payments into convenient monthly instalments, has secured an undisclosed pre-seed round of funding from investors to help it expand its operations across Nigeria and Africa.
The pre-seed funding was received from Co-Creation Hub (CcHub) and other investors after it received investment from Ingressive Capital in 2020.
Founded by Mr Obinna Molokwu in January 2020, Kwaba is a digital platform that helps facilitate home payments for Africans and is aimed at Nigerians looking to pay rent in a modern way that reflects their financial reality.
The startup also offers services such as apartment search, quick funds at affordable rates, and further credit facilities for the purchase of properties.
Over the last year, Kwaba had rent payment requests of N115 billion, with over 30,000 customers. Its mobile app, released in August 2021, has garnered almost 2,000 downloads.
In this same year, it took part in the LABS by ARM accelerator, banking $20,000 in additional funding. With this round, Kwaba is planning expansion across Nigeria and Africa to give more people access to its solution.
“Kwaba is helping to bridge the gap between property and finance. We understand the economic reality of Nigerian renters and have built our product to reflect this. We aim to improve the financial well-being of renters as we grow.
“For us, this new investment comes at a time when we are looking to strategically reposition and expand our services,” said Mr Molukwu.
Dipo Olowookere