Collins Kathuli

Collins Kathuli is the founder and chief executive of Kyanda Africa, a fintech company on a mission to transform payments in Africa. Born and raised in Machakos, he was drawn into technology after high school, when he took a mobile app prototype to a Young Scientists Kenya workshop. In early 2020 he launched Kyanda, a mobile wallet that lets people send money, pay bills and buy goods and services.

The venture soon looked beyond Kenya. After networking at a 2020 summit in Johannesburg, Collins opened a South African branch in 2021, and Kyanda now runs separate platforms for Kenya and South Africa. In 2020 he was named Fintech Founder of the Year at the Founder of the Year Awards. Largely self-taught, he has spoken about the steep learning curve of keeping a payments platform running and the patience a young business demands before it rewards its founder.

Collins is a software development student at KCA University. His persistence shows clearly in his record at the Entrepreneurs' Organization Global Student Entrepreneur Awards. After finishing as first runner-up in the Kenyan edition in 2021, he won the Kenya title for 2023-24 on his fourth attempt, earning KSh 100,000 for the business, mentorship and coaching from established entrepreneurs, and a place in the global quarter-finals in Oman.