My Experience In Kudi
I’m a big Kiss Daniel fan and I listen to a lot of his music. One of my favorites among his songs turns out to be Kudi.. lol. I didn’t even know about Kudi until Sam Axybtez mentioned it on our general slack channel that we should groove to the song after we got our $5m series A funding in March.
Okay, so this article is not about Kudi song, but to talk about Kudi- the amazing fintech I work with. Our work culture, our beautiful office space and the remarkable growth we have recorded in our few years of existence.
Kudi is a fintech startup in the payment services sector. It was launched in January 2017 by Yinka and Pelumi with the major aim of making financial services accessible and affordable to everyone especially the unbanked population.
How do we do this? We do this by helping our customers transfer funds, pay bills, make withdrawals and pay for their TV and data subscriptions seamlessly through our mobile app. We realized that sustainable development cannot be achieved without fully empowering citizens, and by facilitating financial inclusion and fostering entrepreneurship, we are building an economic environment that supports growth.
One thing I appreciate the co-founders of Kudi for is the fact that they have been able to maintain a relaxed and flexible work environment for all the team members. The mutual respect for every person from the CEO to the office assistants.
You would walk into a Kudi office on a regular day and it will be hard to distinguish the CEO/CTO from the team heads and team members.
Our growth record over the years have also been nothing short of remarkable. I saw a slack conversation on how Yinka, Pelumi and LMDino (head of growth) were celebrating in December 2017 when Kudi hit 1000 transactions in a month. They were so excited that they took themselves out for a drink that night and danced to celebrate the great feat.
Fastforward to 2019, we are doing over 90,000 transaction count in a day and have our agents all around the country. The stats are just there. In Dec 2017, we were doing 1,000 transactions in a month. We did 1 billion transaction value for the whole year of 2017. Fast-forward to January 2019, we did 25,000 transaction count in a day and on June 3rd 2019, we have hit over 90,000 transaction count and 1billion transaction value in a day and we are still growing rapidly..
The growth is amazing thanks to our relentless growth team who have been guided by senator LMD.
There’s also the “Kudi spirit” too as Hammed puts it. The fact that people are enthusiastic about their tasks and willing to put in their best and work overtime even if they don’t have to or when it is not within their JD.
The way some of my colleagues forget to eat lunch because they want to finish their task on time. The way everyone rejoices when the company is winning and how everyone is also trying to remedy the situation when we are not meeting our targets. It’s just crazy amazing.
Our new workspace.. this place is mind-blowing.. gosh, When it was announced that we would be moving, I doubted the new office would be as fine as the previous one because I felt the old office space was really beautiful. Little in my tiny mind did I know I was going to be blown away.
A top bank official came into our office one time and she went like hol up, are you sure you guys are just doing agency banking abi there are other businesses you’re doing that you’re keeping away from us. It’s that amazing.
The office space is so beautiful and thoughtful. I mean, how many companies in Nigeria have a sleeping room where employees can rest during work hours, or a quiet room where employees can go to blow some steam off, relax their brain when work gets complex.
We also have Kudi Amphi-theater where we hold our exciting thursday breakfast meetings and our office parties/town hall meetings. We even have a game room stocked with different kind of games like PlayStation, darts, foosball, basketball and all. Kudi is a local company with a global mindset.
If you are looking for a place to grow, there is also a huge potential for growth in this space. Fintech is a fresh industry in the Nigerian space as people are just beginning to really understand how it works.
Financial technology startup is becoming a buzz in emerging markets offering mobile applications and services other banks do not really do (save for a few top banks who are just getting into it).
The opportunities to learn, grow and have a rapid career rise is available unlike some other industries. I learn alot under my head of finance. I’ve written excel formulas I never would have imagined I could write. I have learnt a lot of things from the product and tech guys.
I’ve worked with almost all the divisions in the company from the growth and sales team to customer success team, business and partnerships, administration etc. I am excited about my work and the new challenges and twists it presents, and I always look forward to a challenging day at work.
You may not really hear about us on twitter or social media in general, except for a few times. You may not even see Kudi on one of the top 100 companies to work with because of its size compared to the big companies on the list.
But if there’s any list like top fintech startups bright minds should consider working with, then Kudi should definitely appear top on that list. Our previous and current employees can attest to this fact.
Yes, we have a twitter account and we are active on all our social media platforms but we hardly trend, the people that know us are mostly our agents and business partners.
Our figures are doing great and that’s all that matters. In truth, our market is not even on social media, so there really is no point investing our resources there. Our CEO in one of his medium article as far back as 2017 has been answering questions like “What happened to Kudi?” because of how lowkey we are on social media, despite the fact that we have been consistently dishing out the best service to our customers who are mostly “offline”.
Ooh, how can I forget our office slangs. When you hear slangs like “You are not guided”, you know LMD is in the building. When you hear “O ti crack e”, leemao, most likely you have not cracked jack. Pelumi, Sam or one of the tech guys is just whining you or when someone says “You are very rude”, you know Shewa is the one talking or when you hear “Ooohhh, You have done it again”, lmao, Misan is just a clown.
When someone addresses you with “My brother or My sister”, just calm down, you have not been brotherzoned, that’s how a Teni or Taiwo will address you.
When you see a “not so tall lady” dancing the Zanku dance like a cultural dance, then that’s definitely my splendiferous team-mate- Tomisin. I learn everyday from Tolani (My Head of Finance) on how to be more critical and detailed with figures, how to deal with the banks when they under-settle us, how to be a leader and even how to be a good and loving husband.
Working with these smart individuals and team has been a really great experience for me and it’s just barely 5 months that I joined Kudi.
