Uganda-based digital lending fintech startup, Numida, has revealed plans to take its digital lending business outside the country after securing $12.3 million in its pre-series A equity-debt funding. The funding round was led by the U.S. tennis star Serena Williams’ venture capital firm Serena Ventures.
Breega, 4Di Capital, Launch Africa, Soma Capital, and Y Combinator also participated in the funding round.
Co-founder and CEO Mina Shahid commented on the company’s successful raise and reportedly touted the impact of the financial products his company has been availing to small businesses in Uganda, and how this can be replicated in other African countries.
Shahid said:
“I’m most excited about continuing to build and provide financial products for these micro and small business owners. There are so many of these businesses across the continent, we really do believe that we’ve proven a model in Uganda that can be Pan-African and unlock the potential of these businesses to grow and achieve great things.”
Additionally, according to TechCrunch, Numida has made it a priority to work with MSMEs because they are routinely overlooked by established financial institutions.
Numida stated that it intended to bring the number of its active clients to 40,000 using the recently received funds. According to the source, the fintech company intends to achieve this by boosting its operations in two nations selected from Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt or Kenya.
TechCrunch also reported that Numida, which raised $2.3 million in 2021, has so far granted $20 million in working capital to MSMEs. With the backing of Lendable Asset Management, which recently lent $5 million to the startup, Numida will increase the value of its loans and will at the same time remodel its products to ensure their affordability.
Since raising its seed funding last year, Numida has grown over 7.5 times propelled by the soaring demand for quick loans. The startup has to date issued $20 million in working capital to micro and small businesses, having grown from issuing $250,000 a month to $2 million.