Ask most people about East African fintech and they'll mention some of the same companies within a sentence or two.
That's fair. Most of them earned the association by building the rails an entire region's economy now runs on.
Nearly two decades later, treating those companies as the whole story means missing a generation of startups that have spent the years since figuring out what to build on top of those rails or, in markets where mobile money never had a single dominant winner, what to build instead.
Some of the most interesting fintech work happening in East Africa today isn't really about payments anymore.
It's about asset financing for people locked out of formal credit, remittance infrastructure built for a global diaspora, merchant tools for small businesses, and payment gateways for markets where digital payments are still being assembled from scratch.
A lot of it is happening outside Kenya entirely, in Kampala, Dar es Salaam, Kigali, and Addis Ababa.
Why East Africa's Fintech Story Is Expanding
Mobile money created the foundation: a population already comfortable moving money digitally, agent networks that made cash-in and cash-out widely accessible, and transaction histories that didn't exist before.
What's happened since is that foundation being built on in new directions.
Instead of solving payments alone, startups are now tackling problems such as:
Asset financing without traditional collateral.
Cross-border remittances.
Merchant infrastructure for SMEs.
Payroll and business finance tools.
Payment gateways for fragmented banking markets.
Kenya remains the region's most mature fintech market, but increasingly, some of the most interesting growth stories are emerging from Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Ethiopia.
Five Startups Worth Watching
Asaak (Uganda)
Founded: 2016
Focus: Asset financing for boda boda riders and informal workers
Asaak began life in Soroti as an agricultural lender before pivoting into motorcycle financing in 2019.
Instead of relying on traditional credit histories, the company scores applicants using behavioural data, including trip volume and rider ratings from platforms such as Uber, Bolt, and SafeBoda.
Approved riders can receive financing within days.
Why it matters
Raised $30 million in pre-Series A funding (2022).
Partnered with Standard Bank.
Bundles insurance and savings alongside vehicle financing.
Rather than treating embedded finance as a standalone product, Asaak delivers financial services through an asset riders already need to earn a living.
Tugende (Uganda)
Founded: 2012
Focus: Ride-to-own financing
Tugende pioneered motorcycle financing for informal workers long before the category became popular.
Over the past decade, it has financed more than 80,000 entrepreneurs across East Africa.
Its story also illustrates how difficult this business can be.
In 2023, Tugende's Kenyan subsidiary defaulted on a $5 million loan following an unauthorised intercompany transfer involving its Ugandan parent. The company restructured and continued operating, later partnering with electric motorcycle company Zembo.
Why it matters
Demonstrates both the opportunity and the operational risks of asset financing.
Riders using electric motorcycles reportedly reduce operating costs by up to 40%.
NALA (Tanzania)
Founded: 2017
Focus: Cross-border remittances
NALA began as a domestic payments app in Tanzania before reinventing itself as a remittance platform connecting customers in the UK, US, and Europe with recipients across Africa.
It has since expanded into infrastructure through Rafiki, its B2B payments platform.
Why it matters
Operates across 11 African countries.
Holds 17 regulatory licences globally.
Raised a $50 million credit facility in 2026 after closing a $40 million Series A in 2024.
Unlike many fintechs that diversified away from payments, NALA has doubled down on becoming exceptionally good at them.
Mvend (Rwanda)
Founded: 2013
Focus: Merchant acquiring and payment infrastructure
Mvend isn't the highest-profile startup on this list, but it highlights another side of fintech innovation.
The Kigali-based company develops payment aggregation, merchant acquiring, and digital wallet infrastructure across Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia.
In 2025, it became one of the first merchant acquirers integrated into Rwanda's new eKash payment system.
Why it matters
The work may be less visible than a major funding round, but merchant integration is exactly what turns a national payments strategy into something businesses can actually use.
Chapa (Ethiopia)
Founded: 2020
Focus: Payment gateway infrastructure
Ethiopia's fintech ecosystem is much younger than Kenya's, which means many of its payment challenges are still foundational.
Chapa was built to solve one of them.
Instead of requiring merchants to integrate separately with multiple banks, Chapa provides a single gateway connecting:
18 banks
14 payment methods
25 currencies
The company has processed more than 100 million transactions and was recognised at GITEX Africa 2025.
Why it matters
As Ethiopia's digital payments ecosystem matures, companies like Chapa are building the infrastructure that could underpin the market's next phase of growth.
What These Companies Have In Common
At first glance, these startups appear very different.
One finances motorcycles. Another specialises in remittances. Another focuses on merchant payments.
Yet they're solving the same underlying problem: expanding financial access through infrastructure rather than through standalone consumer products.
Across the region, that infrastructure looks different.
Behavioural data replacing traditional credit scores.
Diaspora payment corridors designed around real migration patterns.
Merchant tools supporting national payment strategies.
Payment gateways simplifying fragmented banking systems.
Whether a company is raising tens of millions of dollars or quietly integrating into a national payments switch, the outcome is similar: more people and businesses gaining access to the financial system.
The Challenges Ahead
Building fintech across East Africa remains difficult.
Each market has its own regulations, licensing requirements, and mobile money ecosystem. A product that works in Uganda may require significant changes before launching in Rwanda or Tanzania.
Cross-border expansion is especially challenging, as we explored in our article on cross-border border payments in the EAC. Tugende's restructuring is a reminder that operating across borders creates operational complexity, not just growth opportunities.
The Bigger Picture
East Africa's next fintech success story probably won't look like M-Pesa. It may not even come from Kenya.
It could be a Ugandan startup helping a boda rider finance their first motorcycle. A Tanzanian company rebuilding remittances. A Rwandan business connecting merchants to a national payment system. Or an Ethiopian startup simplifying digital payments for thousands of businesses.
The headlines may still gravitate toward Nairobi.
But some of the region's most important financial infrastructure is increasingly being built in Kampala, Kigali, Dar es Salaam, and Addis Ababa.
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