Andrew Milne, the fintech founder who helped bring credit to small businesses, dies at 54

Andrew Milne, the Kuunda co-founder who helped build the technology connecting banks to small businesses and mobile money users across Africa, died on October 13, the company said. He was 54.

Only days earlier, he celebrated completing a secondary share sale for the business he helped start in 2018. It was a moment to look ahead for Kuunda, as its early investors were seeing a return and the company was preparing for another phase of growth.

Now, his colleagues must carry those plans forward without him.

“Andy was an energetic and resilient leader,” Kuunda said in a statement. “He was much loved and deeply respected by everyone who worked alongside him.”

The company did not disclose the cause of death.

Milne founded Kuunda in 2018 with Sam Brawerman and Morné van der Westhuizen. Their starting point was a persistent cash flow problem that mobile money agents, small businesses, and consumers face despite being connected to digital payment networks. The team began designing its first liquidity product in Tanzania.

Kuunda built technology that allowed banks and digital platforms to offer credit within services people already used. The company used transaction data to help assess borrowers and embed overdrafts and working capital into services they already used.

It was work that could reach millions of people without making the company behind it a household name.

“We’re a media-shy company,” Milne told Techpoint Africa in a 2025 interview. Among Kuunda’s earliest partners was M-PESA Tanzania, where it helped develop financing for mobile money agents before extending its work into other lending products.

Before Kuunda, Milne had worked in mobile health and financial services. He was managing director of Virgin Lifecare and later chief executive of Hello Doctor, which connected people to medical expertise through their phones. He subsequently served as chief operating officer at mobile money company Zoona.

Those businesses addressed different needs, but each involved finding ways to deliver services beyond the reach of conventional branches and consulting rooms.

At Kuunda, that approach grew into a business spanning African and Asian markets. In October 2025, the company announced a $7.5 million pre-Series A round, following its expansion from Tanzania and Pakistan into Uganda, Malawi, Kenya, and Mozambique.

Its latest transaction, a $5 million secondary share sale announced on October 13, allowed early investors to sell shares to a group led by E4E Africa. Existing backers Accion Ventures, Portugal Gateway Fund, and Seedstars Africa Ventures increased their holdings.

For his colleagues, that milestone is now bound up with their last memories 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 company said.

Milne is survived by his wife, Alison, and their children.

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