Udara

What Udara does

Udara is a Nigerian AI company that provides voice-operations software for financial institutions — primarily microfinance banks, cooperatives, and insurance providers — with additional exposure to F&B and agency-banking use cases. The company was founded in 2025 by Safaya Ikechukwu Ndubueze (CPO and Head of Growth) and Samuel David Egwu (Co-founder), is headquartered in Lagos with an additional office in Abuja, and operates with 1–10 employees. Its public-facing traction includes three named customers (CERN Microfinance Bank, Karacredit, and Citron Foods), an ₦2.4M claimed transaction volume, and a 24% growth figure.

The core product is an AI-powered voice operations platform that automates inbound and outbound customer communications across voice calls, SMS, and WhatsApp. Technical components include AI-driven voice agents, speech-to-text and text-to-speech, anomaly detection for fraud flagging, and predictive analytics dashboards; the platform is also designed to function under intermittent connectivity, an explicit accommodation of infrastructure constraints in its target markets. The product currently supports Nigerian English, with Igbo, Yoruba, and Hausa languages stated as in development. No proprietary AI models, patents, or in-house research have been disclosed, suggesting reliance on third-party AI/ASR/TTS providers with differentiation primarily at the vertical-application and localization layers.

Udara operates a freemium, credit-based pricing model: voice at 1 credit per 10 seconds, SMS at 2 credits per message, and WhatsApp at 3 credits per message. To date, the company has raised a $10,000 funding round (November 2025, undisclosed investors), won a $1,500 prize at the Tech Revolution Africa 2.0 Startup Fest 2.0, joined The Proof Lab accelerator, and been selected to pitch at the Africa Fintech Summit 2026 — a cluster of pre-seed ecosystem signals consistent with very early-stage company-building rather than commercial scale.

Name

Udara

Legal name

Udara

Website

https://useudara.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2026

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Udara is a Nigerian AI company building voice-operations automation for microfinance banks, cooperatives, and insurance firms, using AI agents for voice, SMS, and WhatsApp communications in Nigerian English and planned local languages.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Voice Banking Software

NAICS

Telephone Call Centers (56142)

SIC

Services-Management Services (8741), Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374)

akta.pro primary industry

Customer Experience (CX) QA, Analytics & Voice-of-Customer Operations (BPAAABAN)

Keywords

• AI voice banking
• Microfinance operations
• Customer engagement automation
• Local language voice AI
• Voice operations platform

Headquarters

HQ city

Port Harcourt

HQ country

Nigeria

HQ region

Africa

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Credit-based Usage: Platform is free for all institutions with unlimited customers, branches, and team members. Revenue is generated through a credit-based system where AI voice calls cost 1 credit per 10 seconds, SMS costs 2 credits per message, and WhatsApp costs 3 credits per message. Users receive 100 free credits on signup, with additional credits available for purchase.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Udara is an AI-powered voice operations platform that enables microfinance banks, cooperatives, and insurance companies across Nigeria and Africa to automate customer engagement, loan reminders, and collections via AI voice calls in local languages. The platform bundles AI voice calling, an analytics dashboard, centralized branch/customer/staff management, and multi-channel outreach (voice, SMS, WhatsApp) into a single SaaS product offered on a freemium model with credit-based usage billing.

Product overview

Udara is a single unified AI voice platform for African financial institutions. The core product is the Udara AI Call Banking Platform, which bundles AI voice calling, automated customer engagement (loan reminders, savings calls, follow-ups), an analytics dashboard, centralized management for branches/customers/staff, and multi-language support (Nigerian English available now; Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa forthcoming) — all delivered as one integrated SaaS with free entry tier and credit-based AI voice usage billing.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Udara AI Call Banking Platform AI-powered voice operations SaaS platform for microfinance banks, cooperatives, and insurance companies that automates customer engagement, loan reminders, savings calls, and payment follow-ups in local languages, and centralizes management of branches, customers, and staff with real-time analytics. Delivered as a freemium product with a free tier and usage-based credits for voice, SMS, and WhatsApp outreach.

Quantifiable outcome

• 40% operational cost reduction
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability5 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• The Proof LabminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 March 2026Three additional startups were selected to join The Proof Lab accelerator programme at Tech Revolution Africa 2.0, collectively securing $5,000 in funding. This indicates Udara's ecosystem involvement in accelerator programmes and mentorship access.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Flutterwave: Pan-African payments and fintech infrastructure giant serving merchants, banks, and microfinance institutions. Comparable as a broad incumbent whose enterprise relationships and rails could absorb or compete with Udara's voice/engagement layer for the same buyers.
• Kuda Bank: Nigerian digital-only bank with strong in-app customer engagement and automation. Comparable as a broad Nigerian fintech incumbent that demonstrates the value of automated, language-aware customer engagement at scale.
• Carbon (formerly Paylater): Nigerian digital lender with proprietary collections and customer-engagement operations for mass-market borrowers. Comparable as a large incumbent operating in the same low-literacy, mobile-first Nigerian customer segment that Udara serves.
• OPay: Large Nigerian mobile money and fintech super-app with agent networks across Nigeria. Comparable as a deep-pocketed incumbent whose agent-banking and customer-engagement operations overlap with Udara's agency banking and microfinance use cases.

Direct peers

• Africa's Talking: Pan-African communications API platform providing SMS, voice, and USSD infrastructure widely used by Nigerian fintechs and microfinance institutions. Directly comparable as an enabling layer for voice/SMS engagement with African financial customers.
• Lendsqr: Lending infrastructure SaaS for African microfinance and digital lenders, providing loan origination, collections, and customer management tooling. Comparable to Udara as vertical SaaS serving the same microfinance buyer with operational and engagement workflows.
• Termii: Nigerian-headquartered communications API provider for SMS, voice, and verification, serving fintechs and SMEs across Africa. Comparable to Udara as a programmatic voice/SMS layer for customer engagement and collections.
• Ajua: African customer experience and engagement platform originally built for informal businesses and now expanded to enterprise customers, with WhatsApp/SMS/voice tooling. Comparable as a direct peer providing automated multi-channel customer engagement for African businesses.

Emerging players

• Mono: Nigerian fintech data and connectivity API used by lenders and fintechs to access bank data and initiate payments. Comparable as part of the broader African fintech infrastructure stack where Udara could plug in for identity, data, and payment capabilities.

Regional players

• SeamlessHR: Nigerian enterprise SaaS serving African businesses with HR, operations, and management tooling, including customer and staff data features. Comparable as a fellow Nigerian-headquartered vertical SaaS targeting similar African institutional buyers with bundled management software.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Udara