Andrew Milne, the Kuunda co-founder who helped construct the know-how connecting banks to small companies and cell cash customers throughout Africa, died on October 13, the corporate mentioned. He was 54.
Only days earlier, he celebrated finishing a secondary share sale for the enterprise he helped begin in 2018. It was a second to look forward for Kuunda, as its early traders had been seeing a return and the corporate was getting ready for an additional section of progress.
Now, his colleagues should carry these plans ahead with out him.
“Andy was an energetic and resilient leader,” Kuunda mentioned in a press release. “He was much loved and deeply respected by everyone who worked alongside him.”
The firm didn’t disclose the reason for dying.
Milne based Kuunda in 2018 with Sam Brawerman and Morné van der Westhuizen. Their place to begin was a persistent money circulation downside that cell cash brokers, small companies, and customers face regardless of being linked to digital fee networks. The crew started designing its first liquidity product in Tanzania.
Kuunda constructed know-how that allowed banks and digital platforms to supply credit score inside companies folks already used. The firm used transaction knowledge to assist assess debtors and embed overdrafts and dealing capital into companies they already used.
It was work that would attain thousands and thousands of individuals with out making the corporate behind it a family identify.
“We’re a media-shy company,” Milne instructed Techpoint Africa in a 2025 interview. Among Kuunda’s earliest companions was M-PESA Tanzania, the place it helped develop financing for cell cash brokers earlier than extending its work into different lending merchandise.
Before Kuunda, Milne had labored in cell well being and monetary companies. He was managing director of Virgin Lifecare and later chief government of Hello Doctor, which linked folks to medical experience via their telephones. He subsequently served as chief working officer at cell cash firm Zoona.
(*54*) companies addressed completely different wants, however every concerned discovering methods to ship companies past the attain of standard branches and consulting rooms.
At Kuunda, that method grew right into a enterprise spanning African and Asian markets. In October 2025, the corporate introduced a $7.5 million pre-Series A spherical, following its growth from Tanzania and Pakistan into Uganda, Malawi, Kenya, and Mozambique.
Its newest transaction, a $5 million secondary share sale introduced on October 13, allowed early traders to promote shares to a bunch led by E4E Africa. Existing backers Accion Ventures, Portugal Gateway Fund, and Seedstars Africa Ventures elevated their holdings.
For his colleagues, that milestone is now certain up with their final recollections of him at work.
“Kuunda’s next chapter will now be written without him, and we will carry it forward in a way that honours what he started,” the corporate mentioned.
Milne is survived by his spouse, Alison, and their kids.
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