VunaPay Hits 110,000 Kenyan Farmers with Instant Pay

In Short

• VunaPay says it has registered over 110,000 smallholder farmers in Kenya.
• The startup works with agricultural cooperatives to pay farmers instantly when they deliver produce.
• It has onboarded 140 cooperatives across coffee, maize, and dairy.

What Happened

VunaPay, a Kenyan agrifintech startup, says it now serves more than 100,000 smallholder farmers with an instant payout system.

The company plugs into agricultural cooperatives and aggregators. When a farmer delivers produce, VunaPay helps trigger payment immediately, instead of months later. It also automates payment processing, keeps digital records, and provides cooperative management tools like inventory tracking and real-time farmer data.

The founders are Gatwiri Njogu-Mokaya (CEO), Koya Matsuno (COO), and Ian Wambai (CTO). VunaPay was founded in 2023 and currently operates only in Kenya.

Njogu-Mokaya says many farmers typically wait three to six months, and sometimes more than a year, to receive payment after delivery. In that gap, farmers often sell to middlemen at lower prices or take expensive short-term loans.

VunaPay monetises through a transaction fee on the payments it facilitates. The startup says it is backed by investors including 54 Collective and Lifetime Ventures, plus grant support from Heifer International and MIT Solve.

Why It Matters

Delayed payments are a working capital problem, meaning farmers run out of cash for inputs like fertiliser, feed, or school fees before the season’s income arrives. If cooperatives can pay on delivery, farmers can plan better and are less likely to accept discounted prices.

VunaPay also points to what could come next. The company says it is closing a partnership with a tier 1 commercial bank and exploring blended finance with DFIs, which could bring embedded finance, like loans bundled into the cooperative workflow, at lower rates.

For Kenya’s cooperative-based value chains, software that combines payout rails with transparent records can improve trust, reduce disputes, and make it easier for financial partners to assess risk. VunaPay says it plans to expand into other value chains such as tea, and to widen its reach within Kenya before looking at other African markets.