Best Alternative Lending Companies in Kenya
The 80 best Alternative Lending companies in Kenya in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: M Kopa.
- Switzerland Alternative Lending Market Databook 2025-2029
Ranked: Best Alternative Lending companies in Kenya
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Stage | Founder | Founded | Tech stack | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | M Kopa Provider of affordable solar power for households | $241M | 24 mo ago | Series D | Chad Larson Co-Founder | 2011 | WebflowZohoTikTok Pixel+15 | — |
| 2 | Apollo Agriculture Providing financing, inputs, training, and insurance to empower small-scale farmers | $68M | 1 mo ago | Series B | Eli Pollak Co-Founder & CEO | 2016 | Cart FunctionalitySquarespace CommerceSquarespace+18 | — |
| 3 | HAKKI AFRICA Provider of credit scoring passports and financial services for underserved markets | $15M | 9 mo ago | Series C | Koji Tokuda Co-Founder | 2019 | WordPressMySQLPHP+12 | — |
| 4 | Zanifu Provider of consumer and business loans | $12M | 8 mo ago | Seed | Steve Biko Co-Founder & Director | 2016 | WordPressMySQLPHP+25 | — |
| 5 | Lipa Later Online platform for point of sale financing for multi-category products | $12M | 33 mo ago | Seed | Eric Muli Co-Founder & CEO | 2015 | Node.jsFirebaseAnt Design+8 | — |
| 6 | Asante Financial Services Group Provider of financial services and products to growing businesses in Africa | $8M | 56 mo ago | Series A | — | 2018 | WordPress Block EditorwpBakeryWordPress+23 | — |
| 7 | Pezesha Online P2P marketplace for working capital loans | $6M | 45 mo ago | Seed | — | 2016 | BootstrapEmotionReact+18 | 1 partnership |
| 8 | Kopo Kopo Payment platform to enable acceptance of m-Pesa | $6M | 128 mo ago | Acquired | Mark Straub Co-Founder & Director | 2010 | Cart FunctionalityWordPressMySQL+24 | — |
| 9 | IMF Online platform for invoice factoring | $4M | 54 mo ago | Series A | — | 2020 | — | — |
| 10 | ImaliPay AI-enabled digital financial platform for gig workers | $4M | 50 mo ago | Seed | Oluwasanmi Akinmusire Co-Founder | 2020 | — | — |
| 11 | Power Financial Wellness Platform offering diversified financial services | $3M | 17 mo ago | Seed | Brian Dempsey Co-Founder & CEO | 2019 | WordPressMySQLPHP+26 | 1 partnership |
| 12 | Musoni Nairobi-based micro-finance provider. | $2M | 91 mo ago | Series A | — | 2009 | WordPressMySQLPHP+24 | — |
| 13 | Paylend Online marketplace for point of sale financing | $2M | 53 mo ago | Seed | Bendon Murgor Co-Founder | 2019 | — | — |
| 14 | Alternative Circle App enabling Financial Institutions to lend capital directly | $1M | 110 mo ago | Seed | Gachao Kiuna Founder | 2016 | — | — |
| 15 | INuka Pap Online platform for personal loans | $1M | 116 mo ago | Seed | Waweru Kuria Founder & CEO | 2015 | — | — |
| 16 | Tulaa Online marketplace for farm loans | $652K | 87 mo ago | Seed | — | 2016 | — | — |
| 17 | Umati Capital Provider of supply chain financing solutions | $250K | 140 mo ago | Seed | — | 2012 | — | — |
| 18 | FarmDrive Alternative credit scoring platform intended to offer loans to small farmers | $140K | 106 mo ago | Funding Raised | Peris Bosire Co-Founder & Managing Director | 2014 | — | — |
Top 12 Alternative Lending companies in Kenya
#1
Series B · Nairobi, Nairobi County · founded 2016 · 570 employees$67.8Mraised▾
Providing financing, inputs, training, and insurance to empower small-scale farmers. This is a technology company focused on revolutionizing farming and fostering sustainable livelihoods. It offers farmers comprehensive support, from seed to sale, including financing solutions and access to quality farming inputs. The company utilizes machine learning credit models to provide instant credit decisions, enabling farmers to purchase essential products through a digital store network. It partners with agrodealers to ensure proximity to farmers and provides agricultural training and insurance to protect investments. The goal is to transform subsistence farming into commercial farming, empowering farmers to scale successful agribusinesses and ensure food security. This is achieved through innovative solutions, redefining investment opportunities and driving positive social impact within the agricultural sector.
- May 2026Series B$2.5M
- Apr 2024Grant (prize money)—
- Nov 2023Series B$10M
- Feb 2022Series B$40M
#2
Series C · Nairobi, Nairobi County · founded 2019 · 29 employees$15.3Mraised▾
Provider of credit scoring passports and financial services for underserved markets. It develops and provides credit scoring passports and related financial technology solutions, primarily for microfinance institutions and small-to-medium-sized financial institutions in developing countries. This includes a credit-as-a-service API enabling cross-border credit passport usage. The company utilizes innovative technology to streamline processes, such as automated repayment recording, resulting in significantly reduced operational costs and lower interest rates. It also offers car financing services leveraging its credit scoring system. The aim is to expand access to fair and efficient financial services for individuals lacking traditional credit histories.
- Aug 2025Conventional Debt$680.4K
- Apr 2025Series C$5.1M
- Feb 2025Series B$12.7M
- Dec 2023Series B$2.2M
#3
Seed · Nairobi, Nairobi County · founded 2016 · 46 employees$12.4Mraised▾
Provider of consumer and business loans
#4
Series D · Nairobi, Nairobi County · founded 2011 · 2000 employees$240.7Mraised▾
Provider of affordable solar power for households
#5
Seed · Nairobi, Nairobi County · founded 2019 · 41 employees$3Mraised▾
Platform offering diversified financial services. It provides a core banking system and other operational banking solutions to banks, lenders, asset managers, and other enterprises, allowing them to offer their customers banking services. It also provides a platform for consumers to save, borrow, pay, invest, and protect their money through their application, which is available for android devices.
- Dec 2024Seed—
- Feb 2023Seed$3M
#6
Seed · Nairobi, Nairobi County · founded 2015 · 150 employees$12Mraised▾
Online platform for point of sale financing for multi-category products. It enables users to purchase products from the partnered merchant network and pay in monthly installments with customized repayment options. It provides a merchant portal enabling businesses to provide buy now pay later options to the end customers.
#7
Seed · Nairobi, Nairobi County · founded 2016 · 50 employees$6Mraised▾
Online P2P marketplace for working capital loans
#8
Series A · Nairobi, Nairobi County · founded 2018 · 40 employees$7.5Mraised▾
Provider of financial services and products to growing businesses in Africa. It offers solutions to address the financial needs of underserved individuals and small to medium-sized enterprises. Services include working capital finance, mobile money agent float finance, smartphone finance, and insurance premium finance. The company aims to advance financial independence through accessible and relevant products.
- Oct 2021Series A$7.5M
#9
Seed · Nairobi, Nairobi County · founded 2020 · 63 employees$3.8Mraised▾
AI-enabled digital financial platform for gig workers. It offers tailored financial products including business loans, savings accounts, and credit building solutions that promote the inclusion of gig economy platforms and workers. Also, allows users to set their financial goals.
#10
Series A · Nairobi, Nairobi County · founded 2020 · 15 employees$4Mraised▾
Online platform for invoice factoring. It offers a solution that enables SMEs to obtain financing by providing unpaid invoices. Businesses must select the invoices and send them to the platform. Once approved, the funds are transferred to the business and the remaining amount is deposited once the client closes the outstanding amount.
#11
Seed · Nairobi, Nairobi County · founded 2019 · 5 employees$2Mraised▾
Online marketplace for point of sale financing. It offers a solution that enables credit institutions to manage multiple utility-specific point of sale financing options including shopping loans, educational fees loans, salon loans, and more. It enables businesses to disburse funds as vouchers that can be exchanged for cash in the partnered stores. It also enables individuals to purchase products and services within the partnered network and pay in periodic installments. The application is available on the Android platform.
#12
Acquired · Nairobi, Nairobi County · founded 2010 · 89 employees$5.6Mraised▾
Kopo Kopo is a platform to enable small and medium businesses to accept mobile payments and build relationships with their customers. Also provides an unsecured cash advance of up to Kshs 5M to merchants using their mobile payment app. Collects a daily percentage of sales in return and a flat fee for the service. It partnered with Safaricom to bring the M-PESA Buy Goods service to small and medium businesses throughout Kenya.
Funding & investor landscape
Notable founders
Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage
Share of Alternative Lending coverage by sub-theme.
Regulatory-risk over time rising
Funding & growth over time
funding flat · growth rising
Common questions
Rohit lives in the feed. He covers what's moving right now — the funding rounds, launches and shifts breaking across the trade press — and ties them back to where the sector is heading.