Yinka Adewale is a Nigerian entrepreneur and the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nomba, a financial technology company building payment solutions for businesses across Africa. Formerly known as Kudi, the company began as a chatbot designed to simplify online payments before growing into a broader financial services platform.
Alongside his co-founder, Pelumi Aboluwarin, Adewale has built Nomba into a fintech business supporting merchants with payment processing and financial infrastructure. With a background in Mechanical Engineering and software development, his journey reflects how technology and entrepreneurship can be used to address everyday financial challenges and improve how businesses operate.
Yinka Adewale’s Early Life and Education
Yinka Adewale grew up in Abeokuta, Ogun State, where he developed an early interest in learning and discovering how things worked. As a child, he enjoyed visiting the state library, which he first discovered when he was around 11 or 12 years old. One of the first books he came across was about the Wright brothers and their attempts to build an aircraft. Their story fascinated him and inspired him to experiment with building things of his own.
Adewale attended Abeokuta Grammar School before proceeding to Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, where he studied Mechanical Engineering. His academic background gave him a foundation in technical problem-solving, while his growing interest in technology eventually led him towards software development and entrepreneurship.
Yinka Adewale’s Career Beginnings and Early Ventures
Before establishing Nomba, Yinka Adewale had gained experience in software development and entrepreneurship. He began his professional career as a software engineer at iQube Labs, where he worked on technology solutions before moving on to other roles in the tech industry.
He later worked as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Venture Garden Group and a software developer at Clinicbell, a messaging platform that helped hospitals communicate with their patients. He also served as a Microsoft Student Partner between 2013 and 2015, introducing students to Microsoft technologies and organising training sessions for developers.
In 2014, Adewale co-founded Clinicfy, a healthcare technology company that developed cloud-based financial software to help hospitals manage their revenue and invoices. Around the same period, he also ventured into payment technology through Sanwo, a project that used NFC cards and mobile phones to make payments easier for university students.
These early experiences exposed him to different areas of technology, from healthcare management to digital payments. They also gave him the opportunity to develop products that addressed practical problems, laying the groundwork for his later work in financial technology.
How Yinka Adewale Founded Kudi
In 2016, Yinka Adewale and his friend, Pelumi Aboluwarin, began exploring ways to make financial services more accessible to Nigerians. Their idea followed a series of frustrating banking experiences that made Adewale question why sending money and carrying out basic financial transactions had to be so difficult.
The pair initially developed Kudi.ai, a chatbot that allowed users to send money and pay bills through messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger and Telegram. The idea was to simplify online payments, particularly for people who found banking applications difficult to use.
However, the founders soon realised that providing digital payment services alone would not address the needs of many Nigerians. Some people still depended on cash and needed assistance to access basic financial services. This led them to shift towards agency banking, creating a network of local merchants who could help customers make transfers, withdraw cash, deposit money and pay bills.
Kudi officially launched in January 2017 and was selected for Y Combinator’s Winter 2017 programme, giving the startup access to mentorship, funding opportunities and an international network of entrepreneurs. The company gradually expanded its agent network, bringing essential financial services closer to individuals and small businesses across Nigeria.
Yinka Adewale and the Transformation of Kudi into Nomba
As Kudi continued to grow, Yinka Adewale and his co-founder, Pelumi Aboluwarin, began looking beyond agency banking. They wanted to build a platform that would help businesses do more than receive payments by providing tools to manage their daily financial operations.
On April 14, 2022, the company officially changed its name from Kudi to Nomba. The rebranding reflected the company’s wider business direction and its ambition to provide an integrated payment platform for businesses. According to the company, the name Nomba was inspired by the word “number”, reflecting the importance of understanding and managing business finances.
Following the rebranding, Nomba expanded its services to support businesses operating both online and offline. Its offerings included point-of-sale (POS) terminals, payment collection, business accounts and tools for managing transactions across different business locations.
The company also began developing solutions for businesses with more complex operational needs, including invoicing, payroll and business management tools. This marked a shift from its earlier focus on agency banking towards providing broader financial and operational support for merchants.
In May 2023, Nomba raised $30 million in a pre-Series B funding round led by Base10 Partners, with participation from Shopify, Partech, Khosla Ventures and Helios Digital Ventures. The investment was intended to support the development of more payment solutions and help the company expand its services to businesses across Africa.
The transformation from Kudi to Nomba marked an important stage in Adewale’s entrepreneurial journey, taking the company from a payment chatbot to a broader financial technology platform built around the needs of businesses.
Nomba’s Growth and Recent Achievements
Since its transformation from Kudi, Nomba has continued to expand its payment services and build financial infrastructure for businesses. Its growth has been supported by increasing demand for reliable payment systems among small businesses, retailers and larger companies.
In 2025, the company recorded significant growth in its payment infrastructure. Its payments API processed ₦122 billion across 1.85 million transactions during the year. Virtual accounts accounted for 75 per cent of the transactions processed through the platform, reflecting the growing use of account-based payments by businesses.
Nomba also continued to strengthen its international operations. In September 2026, the company secured a $3 million debt facility through CardinalStone Finance Company Limited. The funding was intended to expand its cross-border payment infrastructure, particularly through its operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The company is using the DRC as a strategic base for facilitating trade between Central Africa and Asian markets, with plans to expand into other African countries, including Zambia and Uganda. It also aims to increase its monthly cross-border payment volume to more than $1 billion.
These developments reflect Nomba’s growing ambitions beyond domestic payment services. Under Adewale’s leadership, the company is positioning itself as a financial technology provider helping African businesses manage payments and participate in international trade.
Yinka Adewale’s Legacy and Impact
Yinka Adewale’s work in the fintech industry has focused on making financial services more accessible and helping businesses manage their payments. Through Nomba, he has contributed to the development of payment solutions that allow businesses to receive money, make transactions and manage their finances without relying entirely on traditional banking services.
What began as an agency banking platform has grown into a financial technology company serving more than 600,000 businesses. Nomba has also expanded its operations beyond Nigeria, developing payment services that connect African businesses with international markets. His journey from software development and early business ventures to leading a growing fintech company reflects his interest in using technology to solve everyday problems. As Nomba continues to expand its services and reach new markets, Adewale remains part of the growing number of Nigerian entrepreneurs building technology-driven businesses for Africa.
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