Kuda gives investors exit opportunity

Kuda’s recent $37 m Series A round has presented an opportunity for early investors to exit their investments through a secondary sale.

An investor, SM River, the consortium consisting of Raj Kulasingam, Haresh Aswani, Vishal Agarwal and Alwin Magimay (which was the lead investor of Kuda’s $1.6m pre-seed round) recently existed through a secondary sale.

In a statement, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Kuda, Babs Ogundeyi, said, “It was important to give Kuda’s earliest investors an exit opportunity, and we are delighted that we have been able to repay their early backing of the company with a material return on their investment.

“We are particularly grateful for the foresight shown by SM River in recognising the potential in Kuda during the company’s earliest days.“They have been incredible investors and have provided Kuda with so much value beyond money by leveraging their knowledge, reputations and networks to help Kuda scale and grow.

“We would like to thank the consortium for their early participation and contribution towards Kuda’s success. In realising their investment in Kuda, SM River will relinquish their seat on the company’s board.”

Speaking of the exit on behalf of SM River consortium, Kulasingam said, “When we met Babs and Musty, we saw the huge opportunity for their vision of the creation of Nigeria’s first digital bank and backed them to take advantage of this opportunity.

“It has been an incredible journey of growth and scale and we commend the Kuda team for getting the company to where it is in such a short space of time.“As angel investors, who focus on early-stage investments, it is now time to recycle our capital, find the next Kuda and hand over the baton to institutional VCs to guide the founders to further scale and grow. 

We will continue to watch with pride as Kuda delivers financial innovation to Africa and the world.”With this exit opportunity, the growth of Africa’s Fintech sector was being demonstrated. It also portrayed how profitable start-ups were becoming for early investors and shareholders in Africa, the statement said.