Umba
“Can a credit-led African neobank scale by owning its own banking license rather than renting BaaS rails?”
Founded2018
HQNairobi, Kenya (originally San Francisco / Ireland)
FoundersTiernan Kennedy, Barry O'Mahony
Total raised$27.3M
Latest roundSeries A, 2022
IndustryFintech / Neobank
The story
Founded 2018 in San Francisco to bring digital banking to underbanked African markets, starting with Nigeria. Pivoted from a pure credit-led mobile lender to a licensed digital bank by acquiring a majority stake in Kenya's Daraja Microfinance Bank in 2022 — obtaining a regulated banking charter rather than renting one. Now operates as a full digital bank in Nigeria and Kenya. Reported 2024 acquisition talks with FairMoney signal consolidation pressure in the African neobank sector.
Product timeline
2018
Founded in San Francisco by Tiernan Kennedy and Barry O'Mahony· founding
2019
Raised seed round from Frontline Ventures and ACT Venture Capital· funding
2021
Launched digital banking product in Nigeria· banking
2022
Raised $15M Series A led by Costanoa/Lux; announced expansion plans across Africa· funding
2022
Acquired 66.6% stake in Kenya's Daraja Microfinance Bank to obtain banking license· acquisition
2023
Launched in Kenya via the Daraja microfinance bank acquisition· banking
2024
Reportedly in talks to be acquired by Nigerian digital bank FairMoney in a $20M all-stock deal (unconfirmed)· acquisition
Acquisitions
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by Umba
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
3 layers disclosed in Umba’s embedded-finance stack
Banking / BaaS
Daraja Microfinance Bank (in-house)
Lending
in the full report
Sponsor bank
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
4 more providers across 2 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.