Kuunda said on LinkedIn that co‑founder and co‑chief executive Andrew Milne has died at 54, two days after the firm announced a $5 million secondary share sale.

The company did not disclose the cause of death but described Milne as an “energetic and resilient leader” and offered condolences to his wife Alison and their children.

Milne co‑founded Kuunda in 2018 alongside Sam Brawerman and Morné van der Westhuizen, building a digital lending infrastructure that serves banks, mobile‑money operators and payment platforms.

The Mauritius‑based firm’s technology uses transaction data to assess creditworthiness, enabling products such as mobile‑money agent liquidity financing, merchant cash advances and stock financing for small retailers.

Kuunda reports that its platform has facilitated more than $4.4 billion in credit across over 870 million loans, reaching 14.6 million agents, merchants and consumers.

The Oct. 13 secondary share sale was led by E4E Africa with participation from Accion Ventures, Portugal Gateway Fund and Seedstars Africa Ventures, providing liquidity to early investors and cutting the shareholder count from 12 to four.

The transaction followed a 2025 funding round that raised $7.5 million from investors including Nedbank and 4Di Capital.

Kuunda said angel investors who sold shares in the latest deal recorded annualised internal rates of return above 70 %, while seed investors achieved returns between 25 % and 40 %.

Before founding Kuunda, Milne held senior positions at South African health‑tech firm Virgin Life Care, digital health platform Hello Doctor and mobile‑money company Zoona, accumulating more than three decades of experience across African markets.

Kuunda indicated it will announce plans to honour Milne’s legacy in due course.