Grace Ashiru
Nomba has achieved a remarkable feat in tech by transitioning from an AI chatbot to a company. This venture capitalist-backed-up company is now valued at $150 million. Nomba, formerly Kudi.AI, was launched in 2017 as a simple solution model to help non-tech-inclined individuals navigate digital payment. This was established when other companies were introducing several natural language processing engines, and so it worked well.
In July 2017, the company switched from being just an AI chatbot to creating a model that allowed the processing of payment by humans and not AI. This move drove the company’s focus to provide solutions for customers who needed assistance when performing transactions and solving the problem of the high cost of cards that would be used to make online transactions.
In 2018 the company started providing banking solutions for small, medium, and large businesses and marginalized those solutions according to verticals like customers’ cash flow. Nomba’s CEO, Adeyinka Adewale, believes that solutions must be customized according to certain verticals, as what works for customer A may not work for customer B. The latest $30 million funding received in the pre-series B round will only aid their customized solution model. The company hardware will allow restaurants to access menus, manage inventory, receive payments, and perform other business functions. According to Adewale, “Partnership is what differentiates Nomba from other companies in the same line of business.”
Adewale reported that their fundraising process took less time than most because, before that time, they had maintained relationships with their investors. Thus, they were able to navigate that change and stay afloat even with the decrease in funding for African startups in the tech industry,
Nomba’s model involves creating business solutions on demand from those businesses and fees charged per transaction. Their valuation of $150 million makes it one of the most valuable fintech startups in Nigeria and shows the potential African Fintech Startups have to offer. More Non-tech savvy solutions need to be created to cater to the population who are not tech-inclined.
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