The capital will underpin its ambition to grow across Africa and the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region, beginning with a push into Egypt.

The round attracted participation from repeat backers and institutional investors, including Portugal Gateway Fund, Seedstars Africa Ventures, 4Di Capital, Accion Ventures, Nedbank and E4E Africa.

Founded in 2018 by Andy Milne, Sam Brawerman and Morne van der Westhuizen, Kuunda builds embedded-credit infrastructure for banks, mobile money providers and digital payment platforms.

Its technology enables partners to offer short-term liquidity products—such as airtime top-ups, mobile money float loans, stock financing and merchant cash advances—via their existing digital ecosystems.

Kuunda reports that more than US$3 billion in loans have already been facilitated through its banking and fintech partners to date.

It currently enables monthly credit disbursements exceeding US$100 million to roughly two million users across markets including Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique and Pakistan.

The funding comes as the company turns its attention to Egypt—a market appealing because of its strong mobile-money adoption and a point-of-sale (PoS) market valued at approximately US$115.7 billion, with an expected annual growth rate of some 8.3 %.

Kuunda plans to collaborate with local e-commerce operators and PoS network providers in Egypt to embed lending products for merchants and agents.

Beyond Egypt, its roadmap includes countries in the MENA region such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Morocco.

Co-founder and co-CEO Andy Milne commented:

“We are unlocking access to finance for Africa’s productive class – the agents, merchants, and small businesses that are the backbone of these economies, whilst helping consumers build up resilience by accessing credit when they need it the most.”

Since its inception, Kuunda has followed a “capital-light and licence-light” model, partnering with licensed banks rather than lending directly from its own balance sheet.

That structure allows it to enter new regions with lower upfront investment and regulatory burden.

Yet Milne acknowledges that scaling across geographies still presents challenges, including product licensing, integration with partner systems and navigating language and cultural differences.

As it readies its expansion, Kuunda will face competition from established digital-lending platforms in the MENA region—such as MNT Halan, Fawry and Flend—which have also secured funding to grow SME-financing activities.

Kuunda believes its embedded-liquidity model gives it a distinct edge in forging the necessary partnerships to scale.