Rewriting the Rules.

From Medicine to Crypto: How Kotani Pay Is Building Africa's Financial Rails

For most people, medicine and cryptocurrency belong in completely different worlds.

One saves lives in hospitals. The other lives in code, wallets, and blockchains.

But for Felix Macharia, the founder of Kotani Pay, the path from medicine to crypto was less about changing industries and more about solving problems at scale.

When we featured Felix on *Hustle Yangu* in our episode "From Medicine to Crypto", one thing stood out: he wasn't fascinated by blockchain because it was trendy. He was interested in what it could do for ordinary Africans.

Today, that vision is attracting global investors.

Kotani Pay recently raised $2 million from investors including P1 Ventures, Flori Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Peer VC, and Adaverse. The company plans to use the funding to expand across Africa and strengthen its mission of making financial services accessible to millions of underbanked people.

But the story of Kotani Pay is bigger than a funding announcement.

It is a story about one of Africa's biggest economic challenges.

The Cost of Sending Money in Africa

Imagine earning money in South Africa and wanting to send it to family in Kenya.

Or running a business in Rwanda and paying suppliers in Tanzania.

For millions of Africans, moving money across borders remains surprisingly expensive.

Transfer fees can consume a significant portion of the amount being sent, creating friction for workers, entrepreneurs, freelancers, and families who rely on cross-border payments.

At the same time, traditional financial systems often exclude large portions of Africa's population.

Many people still lack access to formal banking services. Others live in areas where internet connectivity remains unreliable or expensive.

This creates a difficult question:

How do you build modern financial infrastructure for people who may not have smartphones, bank accounts, or consistent internet access?

Kotani Pay's answer is surprisingly simple.

Building Crypto for Feature Phones

While much of the crypto industry focuses on sophisticated apps and advanced trading platforms, Kotani Pay looked at the devices most Africans already use.

The company built a USSD-based system that allows users to interact with blockchain-powered financial services using the same familiar experience they use to buy airtime or access mobile money services.

No complicated wallet setup.

No requirement for a high-end smartphone.

No need to understand the technical details of blockchain.

Behind the scenes, blockchain technology and stablecoins facilitate the movement and storage of value. For the user, the experience feels familiar.

This approach reflects a broader lesson that many African startups eventually learn:

Innovation isn't always about introducing new behaviors.

Sometimes it's about improving existing ones.

Betting on Stablecoins

The global conversation around crypto often revolves around speculation.

Kotani Pay is betting on something different.

The company sees stablecoins as infrastructure.

Because stablecoins are typically pegged to real-world currencies like the U.S. dollar, they offer a more predictable medium for transferring value compared to highly volatile cryptocurrencies.

For cross-border payments, that predictability matters.

Instead of focusing on trading digital assets, Kotani Pay focuses on helping people move money efficiently between countries.

The blockchain becomes invisible.

The payment becomes the product.

Expanding Across Africa

The company is now looking beyond Kenya.

With fresh funding, Kotani Pay plans to expand into Tanzania, Rwanda, South Africa, and several Francophone African markets. It is also pursuing regulatory licenses in countries such as South Africa, Ghana, and Zambia.

The startup has additionally strengthened its technical capabilities through the acquisition of Fuhlstack, a Nigerian blockchain infrastructure company.

The strategy reflects a growing reality within African fintech.

The next generation of successful startups may not be built for a single country.

They may be built for the continent.

Regulation Remains the Biggest Question

Like many crypto companies operating in Africa, Kotani Pay faces a rapidly evolving regulatory environment.

Kenya has taken a cautious approach toward digital assets, and recent tax measures affecting crypto transactions have introduced additional complexity for startups operating in the space.

For investors, regulation creates uncertainty.

For founders, it creates a moving target.

Yet across Africa, new frameworks are emerging.

Countries such as South Africa, Botswana, and Mauritius have begun implementing licensing structures for digital asset businesses, creating signals that the industry is gradually moving toward greater regulatory clarity.

For companies like Kotani Pay, that clarity could be the difference between niche adoption and mass-market growth.

The Bigger Story

Kotani Pay is often described as a crypto startup.

But that description misses the bigger picture.

At its core, the company is attempting to solve a financial infrastructure problem.

How do you help a continent move money faster, cheaper, and more efficiently?

How do you connect people who have mobile phones but not bank accounts?

How do you build systems that work under African realities rather than Silicon Valley assumptions?

These are the questions that matter.

The blockchain is simply one of the tools.

For Felix Macharia, the journey from medicine to crypto may seem unconventional from the outside.

But viewed through the lens of problem-solving, it makes perfect sense.

Different industries.

Same mission.

Find a problem affecting millions of people and build something useful.

And in Africa's rapidly evolving financial landscape, that mission is only becoming more important.

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Hustle Yangu Note: We previously sat down with Felix Macharia in our feature *"From Medicine to Crypto"*, where he shared his transition from the medical field into blockchain entrepreneurship and the vision that eventually became Kotani Pay. Today, that vision is expanding beyond Kenya and helping shape the future of African payments.