Andrew Milne, the Kuunda co-founder who helped construct the era connecting banks to small companies and cell cash customers throughout Africa, died on October 13, the corporate stated. He used to be 54.
Simplest days previous, he celebrated finishing a secondary percentage sale for the industry he helped get started in 2018. It used to be a second to appear forward for Kuunda, as its early traders had been seeing a go back and the corporate used to be making ready for any other segment of enlargement.
Now, his colleagues should lift the ones plans ahead with out him.
“Andy used to be an vigorous and resilient chief,” Kuunda stated in a commentary. “He used to be a lot cherished and deeply revered via everybody who labored along him.”
The corporate didn’t expose the reason for loss of life.
Milne based Kuunda in 2018 with Sam Brawerman and Morné van der Westhuizen. Their start line used to be a continual money drift drawback that cell cash brokers, small companies, and shoppers face in spite of being hooked up to virtual fee networks. The crew started designing its first liquidity product in Tanzania.
Kuunda constructed era that allowed banks and virtual platforms to supply credit score inside products and services other people already used. The corporate used transaction knowledge to assist assess debtors and embed overdrafts and dealing capital into products and services they already used.
It used to be paintings that might succeed in thousands and thousands of other people with out making the corporate at the back of it a family identify.
“We’re a media-shy corporate,” Milne told Techpoint Africa in a 2025 interview. Amongst Kuunda’s earliest companions used to be M-PESA Tanzania, the place it helped expand financing for cell cash brokers sooner than extending its paintings into different lending merchandise.
Sooner than Kuunda, Milne had labored in cell well being and monetary products and services. He used to be managing director of Virgin Lifecare and later leader government of Hi Physician, which hooked up other people to scientific experience via their telephones. He therefore served as leader running officer at cell cash corporate Zoona.
The ones companies addressed other wishes, however every concerned discovering tactics to ship products and services past the succeed in of standard branches and consulting rooms.
At Kuunda, that way grew right into a industry spanning African and Asian markets. In October 2025, the corporate announced a $7.5 million pre-Series A round, following its growth from Tanzania and Pakistan into Uganda, Malawi, Kenya, and Mozambique.
Its newest transaction, a $5 million secondary percentage sale introduced on October 13, allowed early traders to promote stocks to a gaggle led via E4E Africa. Current backers Accion Ventures, Portugal Gateway Fund, and Seedstars Africa Ventures larger their holdings.
For his colleagues, that milestone is now certain up with their final recollections of him at paintings.
“Kuunda’s subsequent bankruptcy will now be written with out him, and we can lift it ahead in some way that honours what he began,” the corporate stated.
Milne is survived via his spouse, Alison, and their kids.
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