Digital bank for African youths, Fingo has launched its neobank in partnership with Ecobank Kenya.
Founded by a group of Kenyan youth, Kiiru Muhoya and James da Costa, Ian Njuguna and Gitari Tirima in 2021, Fingo focuses on making access to savings, insurance and credit, as well as financial services seamless.
The YC-backed S21 fintech has raised $4 million in seed funding round led by Multistage venture capital firm HOF Capital with participation from Hustle Fund, Pioneer Fund, TCVP, Launch Africa, Chandaria Capital, Naiban (Nairobi Angel Network), Chui Ventures, as well as from the co-founders of Monzo and Twitch and executives from Google, Facebook and Paytm.
Thereafter, the fintech startup signed a partnership with Ecobank, and began integrating its software with the bank in preparation for the launch and waiting for regulatory approval from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), which finally came in the first quarter of this year.
Fingo is on a mission to empower African youth, enabling them build wealth with financial products designed to meet their needs. Its partnership with Ecobank gives the startup access to Ecobank’s 33+ markets, with both companies planning a pan-African rollout beginning in Kenya where they are the first digital-only bank in the country.
Tackling the struggle youth face in accessing financial services, including the stressful process of opening an account, with multiple in-person interactions and physical paper documents, Fingo is making it easy for consumers to spend anywhere, send money to friends, loved ones or businesses, and affordably maintain their accounts, helping them spend less and save more.
Fingo affirms to have acquired a waitlist of 50,000 customers within 24 hours of launch. It allows users to download the ‘Fingo Africa’ app and receive access to a bank account in under 5 minutes, paired with free peer-to-peer transactions and immediate access to multiple services such as savings, financial education and smart spending analytics.
