Umba

Umba is a pan-African digital bank founded in 2018 that delivers loans, savings and payment products directly to consumers and small businesses through their phones. By removing brick-and-mortar branch overhead and automating credit decisions with proprietary data models, the company offers banking at a fraction of the cost of traditional institutions, with a focus on customers excluded by high fees, paperwork and physical infrastructure.

The product suite spans consumer and small business lending, digital savings accounts, payment solutions, vehicle financing and fixed deposits earning up to 16.5% interest. Umba has also built stablecoin rails for cross-border money movement, positioning itself as Africa's first stablecoin bank. Its work sits at the intersection of mobile technology, machine learning and artificial intelligence, with proprietary credit scoring and automated decisioning at the core of its lending operations.

The company operates a lean, efficiency-driven team and reported 6x revenue growth in 2024. It serves over 144,000 customers and acquired a deposit-taking microfinance bank in Kenya in 2023. Umba has a presence in Kenya and Nigeria, with a broader continental mission to build financial infrastructure for economic empowerment across Africa.