Kredete Raises $22M to Enable African Immigrants to Access Financial Services

Nigerian fintech startup Kredete has raised $22 million to help African immigrants access financial services.

AfricInvest led the Series A funding round via its Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund (CAIF) and Financial Inclusion Vehicle (FIVE) alongside Partech, and with participation from Polymorphic Capital.

Kredete will use this latest round to drive expansion into Canada, the United Kingdom, and key European markets.

Kredete is Unlocking Access, Credit, and Opportunity

Kredete was founded in 2023 by serial entrepreneur Adeola Adedewe. The startup is on a mission to help African immigrants build credit and access better financial services. It has built a platform that assists millions in sending money home, paying with cards, and saving securely.

“Our vision is simple: if you support your family financially, that should count toward your creditworthiness,” says Adeola Adedewe, Founder and CEO of Kredete. “We’re building a system that rewards financial responsibility across borders. This raise is about scaling that infrastructure globally — and making sure that the millions of Africans abroad are finally seen, scored, and served.”

The company combines international money transfers with a proprietary credit-building engine. It enables users to send money to over 30 African countries while improving their credit history in the U.S. and beyond. The startup’s next phase focuses on creating borderless, stablecoin-based rails that connect African economies to the global money movement.

By pairing remittances with credit-building features, Kredete empowers users to establish financial histories. These histories unlock access to loans, mortgages, and business credit. This approach fills a gap that traditional banks have often overlooked.

Kredete has also built API-based infrastructure to help businesses make secure and affordable cross-border payments into Africa. The Nigerian-based firm leverages modern payment rails and stablecoin technology to do this.

The Next Steps for Kredete

The funding round was led by AfricInvest via its Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund and Financial Inclusion Vehicle (FIVE), with participation from Partech and Polymorphic Capital. 

“Kredete has been focusing on serving the African diaspora while addressing the key bottlenecks faced by payment operators when they move money in and out of Africa,” comments Khaled Ben Jilani, Senior Partner at AfricInvest. 

“It is one of those extremely rare start-ups that has managed to solve several problems at once — both for its African consumer clients, as well as for the large payments companies operating in Africa.”

This latest round brings Kredete’s total funding to $24.75 million. It will help the company to ramp up partnerships with mobile money operators, card issuers, and employers. Potentially, it would also create an end-to-end ecosystem where users can earn, send, spend, and build credit under one roof.

Kredete’s mission aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8) and Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10). Since launching, Kredete has reached over 700,000 monthly users, facilitated $500 million in remittances, and boosted users’ U.S. credit scores by an average of 58 points.

Kredete’s next challenge is scaling its model across 40+ jurisdictions while maintaining low costs. Success could revolutionize financial access for Africans, transforming remittances, credit-building, and global economic participation.