Kora (Fintech company)

Kora

Formerly	Korapay
Company type	Fintech
Founded	2017
Founder	Dickson Nsofor
Headquarters	Lagos, Nigeria
Area served	Africa Nigeria Ghana Kenya Cameroun South Africa Côte d'Ivoire
Key people	Ayodeji Osisanmi (CFO)
Products	Pay-ins Payouts Settlement Card Issuing KYC Verification
Number of employees	210
Website	korahq.com

Kora is a pan-African payment infrastructure company headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, with offices in Canada and the United Kingdom.[1] The fintech company enables local and global businesses to accept pay-ins, make payouts, and get settled across popular payment channels across Africa.

History

Dickson Nsofor founded Kora in 2017.[2] Later on, Gideon Orovwiroro,[3] Bryan Uyanwune[4] and Ayodeji Osisami joined him as the first employees.

At the time, the company focused on building financial tools for NGOs to disburse funds utilizing the blockchain technology. The idea for the company came from Dickson Nsofor, who was at the time working for a fintech in London, HumanIQ, providing a solution to the problem of 60% of the world's population lacking full access to financial services.[5]

Growth

Kora started as a remittance business.[6] In 2019, the decision was made to pivot its operations, making Kora into a B2B business that now offers the payment processing services it does. That same year, the company attended Techstars Toronto accelerator programme.[7]

In 2022, the company received a commercial PSSP license from the Central Bank of Nigeria.[8]

Expansion to the UK

Later in the 2022, Kora expanded to the United Kingdom by partnering with the municipal government in Birmingham to open its first fully operational UK office[1]. At the 2022 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, Kora was announced as a new Commonwealth-sourced foreign direct investments (FDI) project for the West Midlands.[9]

Dickson Nsofor, CEO of Kora, on centre stage ahead of the opening night of Collision 2019 at Enercare Center in Toronto, Canada.

In July of 2022, the company was accused of fraud in Kenya,[10] but the charges were dropped a few months later after investigations revealed no wrongdoing on the part of the company. Both Kenya Asset Recovery Agency and the Kenyan Department for Criminal Investigation found no evidence of fraud in the company's operations. In one court document drawn and filed on the 19th of October 2022 by state counsel Stephen Githinji on behalf of the ARA director, the agency said that it had withdrawn its entire lawsuit.[11]

Products and services

Kora offers a payment application programming interface (API) to companies that give them access to a suite of products and services including Pay-ins, Payout, Payment Links, Virtual Bank Account, Dynamic Virtual Bank Account, Fixed Bank Account, mobile money payments acquiring, card issuing, bulk payout, KYC verification etc.[12]

References

1. Dosunmu, Damilare (2022-06-22). "Kora expands into the UK". TechCabal. Retrieved 2022-11-21.
2. Guarda, Dinis (2017-12-01). "Blockchain For Africa! Interview with KORA CEO Dickson Nsofor That Raised $1m Before Pre-sale". IntelligentHQ. Retrieved 2022-12-08.
3. "After $12m ICO, Kora wants to become the first $5b tech startup in Africa". Techpoint Africa. 2018-08-29. Retrieved 2022-12-08.
4. "Bryan Uyanwune". F6S. Retrieved 2022-11-21.
5. Baker, Lee (2017-07-31). "Humaniq sets out plans to open up opportunity to all". Medium. Retrieved 2022-11-21.
6. BusinessDay (2019-03-28). "Korapay is Changing the Game for International Payments into Africa". Businessday NG. Retrieved 2022-11-21. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
7. Kene-Okafor, Tage (2021-10-18). "More African startups get into Techstars Toronto". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2022-11-21.
8. "From Nigeria to the UK, businesses 'go local in Africa' with Kora". Ventureburn. 2022-07-04. Retrieved 2022-12-18.
9. Bailey, Bunmi (2022-08-10). "Kora emerges Commonwealth-sourced West Midlands FDI project". Businessday NG. Retrieved 2025-01-18.
10. Ogemba, Paul. "Court freezes Sh45m in Nigerian firms' accounts". The Standard. Retrieved 2022-12-08.
11. Eleanya, Frank (2022-11-24). "Kenya's ARA clears Kora of wrongdoing in money laundering case". Businessday NG. Retrieved 2022-12-08.
12. "Korapay Public APIs (Published)". Korapay Public APIs (Published). Retrieved 2022-11-21.