In your own words – what do you do?
At Kutana, we are building Africa’s first pan-African Trade Bank with new financial infrastructure designed to make trade across Africa and between Africa and the world safe, easy, and cost-effective. Our platform combines multi-currency digital wallets, instant global payments, trade insurance, and trade finance, giving African businesses and their international partners a single, seamless platform to manage every aspect of trade.
We are closing the financial infrastructure gap that has long held African businesses back from participating fully in global trade. For too long, entrepreneurs and SMEs across Africa have faced barriers such as limited access to foreign currency, expensive cross-border transactions, and low trust between trading partners. Kutana solves this by creating a trusted digital layer where money, goods, and trust can move as easily across African borders as they do within Europe or Asia.
Our multi-currency wallets allow users to instantly hold, send, and receive funds in major currencies like USD, GBP, EUR, CNY, and key African currencies, removing the dependency on unstable local banking infrastructure. Our Trade Secure product combines escrow and insurance to make trade safer, ensuring both buyer and seller protection. Meanwhile, our Trade Finance offering helps small businesses access the working capital they need to grow and fulfil international orders.
Ultimately, Kutana is about unlocking Africa’s trade potential. We believe that when businesses can trade confidently, they can create jobs, build wealth, and connect Africa to global prosperity. We’re not just building another fintech, we’re building the digital rails for African trade.
What’s the most exciting thing about what Kutana is doing?
The most exciting thing about Kutana is that we’re building at a moment of enormous potential for Africa. By 2050, Africa’s population will double to 2.5 billion, representing 25% of the world’s people. This demographic shift presents one of the greatest economic opportunities of our time, but only if the right financial systems are in place.
Kutana has the chance to help shape that future. We’re laying the foundations for a connected African economy, where a business in Nairobi can pay a supplier in Accra or a manufacturer in Shenzhen in seconds. We’re making trade not just possible, but frictionless, for the next generation of African entrepreneurs.
What excites us is the transformative impact of our work. Every payment processed through Kutana is more than a transaction, it’s a story of a business owner overcoming barriers, expanding markets, and creating livelihoods. We’re helping turn Africa’s entrepreneurial energy into global competitiveness.
Equally exciting is the scale of the challenge and opportunity ahead. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is the largest free trade area in the world by population, yet it’s underpinned by fragmented and inefficient systems. Kutana is positioning itself as the digital bridge that connects this massive market internally and to the rest of the world.
What are you most proud of so far?
Professionally, the proudest moment has been taking Kutana from a simple idea into a company that is already adding tangible value for businesses across the continent. We’ve built a real product, processed real transactions, and solved real problems. Seeing African SMEs use our platform to trade with confidence and efficiency is the ultimate validation of why we started.
We’ve also achieved great traction for an early-stage startup. Kutana has already processed over $2m in transactions across 10+ countries, built a $250 million trade pipeline, and attracted strategic partners in banking and regulation across multiple markets. Each milestone has proven that there is both a need and a market for what we’re building.
On a personal note, one of the most meaningful achievements has been enabling over 1,000 individuals from refugee backgrounds to receive payments securely through our system. That experience demonstrated that Kutana’s technology doesn’t just empower businesses, it also gives financial dignity and inclusion to people who are often excluded from the global economy. It reaffirmed our belief that our solution can truly serve everyone, not just corporations.
What have you found most difficult about being a startup?
The hardest part of building a startup is balancing growth and fundraising. Investors want to see traction, but achieving traction requires capital, creating a constant push and pull between operating the business and raising funds. You can’t pause one to focus on the other, so you’re often doing both at full speed.
For us, that has meant long hours, constant prioritisation, and the discipline to execute even when resources are stretched thin. In fintech, the challenge is multiplied by the complexity of compliance and the pace of regulatory approvals, both of which take time and money.
Another challenge is the emotional resilience it takes. One day you’re celebrating a breakthrough partnership, and the next you’re facing unexpected issues or investor rejections. It requires belief, patience, and a strong team culture to keep moving forward.
But every difficulty also brings growth. Those long nights have taught us focus and perseverance. The fundraising struggles have made us sharper storytellers. And every technical or regulatory setback has forced us to build stronger, more compliant systems. In many ways, the challenges have shaped Kutana into a better, more resilient company.
What would you do differently if you started now?
If we were starting again today, the biggest thing we’d do differently is budget more aggressively for compliance. Early on, we underestimated just how much time, expertise, and money would go into securing licences and meeting regulatory standards across different jurisdictions.
We initially thought of ourselves as a tech company, we are building digital wallets, payment rails, and trade infrastructure. But as we grew, we realised we are actually in the compliance business. Our success depends not only on great technology but on the trust and regulatory frameworks that underpin global trade.
If we had a chance to restart, we would have raised more capital in the initial round and allocated a larger share of it toward compliance and licensing. It’s one of the most important investments any fintech can make, and it pays dividends later when you’re ready to scale.
This lesson has made us more strategic and disciplined. Today, we treat compliance as a competitive advantage, something that allows us to move faster and operate with confidence across multiple countries. It’s a hard-won insight, but one that defines how we approach the next phase of Kutana’s journey.
Where do you think you’ll be in 12 months?
Twelve months from now, Kutana will look very different, bigger, stronger, and more embedded in Africa’s trade ecosystem. We expect to have closed our Seed round, expanded into five African markets alongside operations in the UK and Europe, and achieved regulatory authorisation in three jurisdictions.
Financially, we are on track to reach $1 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), with a customer base of over 1,000 African businesses and 5,000 freelancers using Kutana to access global finance. Our focus will be on scaling our payments and trade finance products while deepening relationships with banks, insurers, and logistics partners to create a full-service trade ecosystem.
Operationally, we’ll continue strengthening our technology enhancing transaction speed, security, user experience and expanding our partnerships with major financial institutions. By this time next year, we want Kutana to be recognised as the go-to platform for African SMEs engaging in cross-border trade.
More than metrics, though, our goal is impact: empowering thousands of entrepreneurs to trade confidently and grow across borders. If we can make global finance accessible to the next generation of African businesses, we’ll know we’re on the right path.
What organisations, services, or communities from your local tech cluster have helped you most so far?
From a UK perspective, we’ve been fortunate to benefit from the support and expertise of several incredible organisations. The Barclays Eagle Labs Programme was instrumental in our early journey. It provided mentorship, exposure, and connections that ultimately led to our pre-seed investment. Being part of a community of founders and mentors who understand the challenges of scaling fintechs was invaluable.
We also joined the J.P. Morgan FinTech Forward Programme, which has been a game-changer. Having the world’s largest bank backing and supporting our progress has not only accelerated our growth but also validated our vision on a global stage. Through this programme, we gained access to senior leaders, deep domain expertise, and critical introductions that would have taken years to achieve otherwise.
Both programmes have been far more than accelerators, they’ve been ecosystems of learning and opportunity. I’d strongly encourage any early-stage fintech founder to explore them. The right community can make the difference between a good idea and a scalable business.
How has working with Ashfords supported Kutana’s ambitions?
The UK is an important market for us, so we wanted to partner with a law firm with deep knowledge and expertise in the fintech sector, with proven experience of launching innovative payments and embedded finance offerings. Ashfords has been a great partner in helping us navigate the complex legal and regulatory landscape of fintech.
The firm has supported us through our pre-seed investment and has worked with us during our FCA application to become an Authorised Payments Institution, providing practical advice on our planned activities and platform operations. Ashfords has also supported with creating key terms and conditions for our cross-border payments offering. We look forward to working together on future projects on the Kutana roadmap.
What excites you most about the future of Kutana?
What excites us most about Kutana’s future is the scale of the opportunity and the impact we can make. We’re in one of the world’s fastest-growing regions, serving a market that is chronically underserved by traditional finance. Millions of businesses across
Africa still lack access to affordable, reliable cross-border financial services and we’re changing that.
We’re excited about the innovation we can drive: integrating blockchain and AI to make trade more transparent, partnering with global banks and insurers to reduce risk, and expanding into markets that have been historically disconnected from global commerce.
But beyond technology, what truly excites us is the human impact, watching African entrepreneurs take their products global, seeing women-led SMEs access capital for the first time, and helping the next generation of innovators participate in the digital economy.
Kutana’s future is about building a legacy: a connected, trusted, and financially empowered Africa that can trade with the world on equal terms. That vision keeps us inspired every day.
Where can we find out more about Kutana?
You can learn more about us and our work at www.kutanapay.com.
You can also connect with me on LinkedIn for updates, insights, and partnership opportunities.