Yinka Adewale, the CEO of Nomba (formerly Kudi)

In the middle of 2016, after another frustrating banking experience, Yinka Adewale and Pelumi Aboluwarin founded Nomba (formerly Kudi) (YC W17) to drive a seamless banking experience in our local communities in Africa. Now, Nomba (formerly Kudi) is trusted by millions of people every day to send money, get cash and make bill payments across Nigeria.

In this video, Yinka Adewale shared his story - how Nomba (formerly Kudi) started as message commerce (Kudi.ai) and pivoted to agent banking after some time, the difficulty they faced raising seed for the business, plans for the future and lessons learned so far. He also shared the story behind how he resigned as co-founder/co-CEO and give up all his shares at a previous startup and much more. Go watch it on my YouTube channel.

01:12 - Growing up
08:00 - From EIR at Venture Garden Group to launching his first startup
10:55 - Launching his second company
13:00 - First $25k investment while he was still in University.
16:00 - Raised $100k seed and grow the team to about 10
17:05 - Resigning & Stepping down as Co-CEO and giving up all his shares
22:00 - Kudi time (lol). How Nomba (formerly Kudi) started
27:22 - Pivoting from Kudi.ai to Kudi.com
28:53 - Raising $500k for Nomba (formerly Kudi)
32:22 - Agent Banking
39:00 - Raising Series A
42:00 - Current Stats on Nomba (formerly Kudi) (+ Yinka's thought on the ecosystem)
44:35 - The best thing about what Kudi is building
47:33 - Challenges Building a Fintech in this market
49:45 - What will you do differently if you could do it all over again
52:30 - Biggest Hiring Mistake so Far & Favourite Personal Failure
1:03:00 - Exit plan for Nomba (formerly Kudi): IPO? Acquisition? Build for the long term?


Enjoy watching this episode? Please let me know - first in the comments but also on social media using #Foundersconnect and you can tag me @peaceitimi, @kudihq @waleyinks (on Twitter)

Learn more: https://kudi.com/

Get my new book - https://peaceitimi.com/growthhackbook/