Nigerian neobank Kuda is launching in the UK to short circuit remittance costs for expats sending money back to the homeland.
Kuda, which last year raised raised a $55m Series B funding, is entering the UK market charging a flat fee of only £3 with a transfer limit of £10,000.
With over £3 billion sent from the UK to Nigeria every year at an average fee of eight percent per transaction, Kuda says it is set to save UK Nigerians millions of pounds.
Kuda has tied up with embedded payments platform Modulr to offer a mobile wallet, virtual and physical cards, local UK transfers and direct debits. The app is also supported by TellMoney, which helps Kuda maintain the open banking standard under Modulr’s requirements.
Commenting on the launch of the UK app, CEO and co-founder Babs Ogundeyi says: “Africans in the UK are faced with barrier after barrier when it comes to financial services - from challenges setting up accounts to prohibitive and inconsistent fees on meaningful transfers. They are forced to limit each transfer to a few hundred pounds to avoid losing money or face escalating exchange rates with bigger transfers."
The Kuda app will be available on iOS, Android and the web, initially offering UK-to-Nigeria remittance, with plans to expand to other African countries in the near future.