KOTANI PAY (View Website)
Location: Kenya
Sector: Fintech

A quick question; Do you need a bank account to send money? What sort of question is this? you ask yourself. (I smile) . Okay, another question; Do you need an internet connection to send money? Oh, now you’re walking away… Wait a bit, please!
Kotani Pay says the answer to those questions is ‘NO’. Wow!!! So what or who is Kotani pay?
Kotani Pay is a Kenyan-based USSD-Crypto Payments Startup founded in 2021 by five powerful minds who aim to promote financial inclusion in Africa by enabling easy access to a range of financial services including lending and payouts by non-profit organizations. The wonderful team at Kotani Pay is building a solution that allows people to access blockchain technology to send and receive money without the need for internet connectivity or a bank account. So because USSD is the primary mode of the mobile interface for a majority of the population in developing countries, Kotani Pay serves as a middleware technology service that enables users to access the blockchain and cryptocurrencies via Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD).
On June 11 2021, they announced to have received 19.8841 Ethereum as grant funding from UNICEF Innovation Fund. In addition to that wonderful news, they recently took in this quarter of the year hit a great milestone as announced by its Co-Founder/COO Samuel Kariuki.
And what is this milestone? 1,985 addresses and 83,524 transactions as analyzed by Chainbeat. What a stride in the continuous journey to bring financial instruments and services to those that do not have access to the internet or have the capital or credit standing to open a bank account, and to also educate underprivileged societies in mobile money, digital assets and Blockchain technology.
Just so you know, Kotani pay provides various APIs which include; APIs for lending and Decentralized Finance Protocols, APIs for work platforms – Gig work marketplaces, APIs for Neobanks and wallets. With Mpesa, MTN Money, Airtel money currently available channels.
Not to forget the blockchain digital assets available which are; BTC, Celo, ETH, EOS
As a wrap, read this; “Celo describes Kotani pay as frictionless because it uses mobile interfaces already familiar to the local African audience.”
Get updated by following our social media accounts and supporting our ever-growing YouTube Channel.