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

Andrew Milne, the Kuunda co-founder who assisted construct the innovation linking banks to small companies and mobile cash users throughout Africa, passed away on October 13, the business stated. He was 54.

Just days previously, he commemorated finishing a secondary share sale for business he assisted begin in 2018. It was a minute to look ahead for Kuunda, as its early financiers were seeing a return and the business was getting ready for another stage of development.

Now, his associates need to bring those strategies forward without him.

“Andy was an energetic and resistant leader,” Kuunda stated in a declaration. “He was much liked and deeply appreciated by everybody who worked together with him.”

The business did not divulge the cause of death.

Milne established Kuunda in 2018 with Sam Brawerman and Morné van der Westhuizen. Their beginning point was a relentless capital issue that mobile cash representatives, small companies, and customers deal with in spite of being linked to digital payment networks. The group started developing its very first liquidity item in Tanzania.

Kuunda constructed innovation that permitted banks and digital platforms to provide credit within services individuals currently utilized. The business utilized deal information to assist examine customers and embed overdrafts and working capital into services they currently utilized.

It was work that might reach countless individuals without making the business behind it a home name.

“We’re a media-shy business,” Milne informed Techpoint Africa in a 2025 interview. Amongst Kuunda’s earliest partners was M-PESA Tanzania, where it assisted establish funding for mobile cash representatives before extending its work into other financing items.

Before Kuunda, Milne had actually operated in mobile health and monetary services. He was handling director of Virgin Lifecare and later on president of Hello Doctor, which linked individuals to medical proficiency through their phones. He consequently worked as primary running officer at mobile cash business Zoona.

Those organizations resolved various requirements, however each included finding methods to provide services beyond the reach of traditional branches and speaking with spaces.

At Kuunda, that technique became a service covering African and Asian markets. In October 2025, the business revealed a $7.5 million pre-Series A round, following its growth from Tanzania and Pakistan into Uganda, Malawi, Kenya, and Mozambique.

Its most current deal, a $5 million secondary share sale revealed on October 13, permitted early financiers to offer shares to a group led by E4E Africa. Existing backers Accion Ventures, Portugal Gateway Fund, and Seedstars Africa Ventures increased their holdings.

For his coworkers, that turning point is now bound up with their last memories of him at work.

“Kuunda’s next chapter will now be composed without him, and we will bring it forward in such a way that honours what he began,” the business stated.

Milne is endured by his other half, Alison, and their kids.

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