Muchu Kaingu — CEO
I believe the next wave of financial inclusion won't come from legacy banks adding mobile apps. It will come from African founders who understand the problem deeply enough to engineer entirely new systems from scratch. That's what we did at Lupiya. In 2016, my co-founder Evelyn and I started Lupiya with $500 and a conviction that Zambia's unbanked and underbanked population deserved better than what existed. No venture backing. No safety net. Just code, customers, and an obsession with solving real problems. In 2023, US Vice President Kamala Harris visited our operations - a moment that validated what we'd been building from day one. Today, Lupiya is Zambia's first AI-native neobank. We've grown to over 130,000 users, raised $18M in total funding (including an $11.25M Series A), and built proprietary machine learning models that power our credit scoring, loan decisioning, and risk assessment - enabling us to serve customers that traditional banks won't touch. Backed by Google and Mastercard, and alumni of the Visa Accelerator Program. What I do day to day: → Lead all technology, product, and AI development at Lupiya → Architect the systems behind our lending, payments, and investment products → Build and mentor a growing engineering team in Lusaka → Drive our AI strategy - from credit scoring models to AI agents that automate internal operations → Oversee our regional expansion across Africa Before Lupiya, I spent nearly 6 years as Head of IT at Spar, where I led systems implementation, business intelligence, and software development across the retail chain. That experience taught me how technology transforms operations at scale - a lesson I carry into everything I build today. I also founded Apptorney, an AI-powered legal tech platform, and Circuit Business Solutions, a technology consultancy - because I believe software can unlock efficiency in every industry, not just finance. I write about what I know: bootstrapping, building in Africa, fintech infrastructure, AI agents, payments, fundraising, and the unglamorous realities of running a startup for nearly a decade. If you're building something ambitious, or thinking about it - let's connect. I'm always open to conversations with founders, engineers, and investors who believe Africa's best tech companies are still being built. ⭐️ BSc Computer Science (First Class Honours) - University of Greenwich ⭐️ Angel Investor ⭐️ Google Black Founders Alumni ⭐️ Aspen Ideas Fellow ⭐️ GITEX Africa Supernova Champion ⭐️ Featured on CNN, TechCrunch, VOA
Stackforce AI infers this person is a Fintech entrepreneur with expertise in AI-driven solutions and digital banking.
Location: Lusaka, Lusaka Province, Zambia
Experience: 17 yrs 3 mos
Skills
- Fintech
- Ai Strategy
- Legal Technology
- Entrepreneurship
- It Management
Career Highlights
- Co-founded Zambia's first AI-native neobank.
- Raised $18M in funding backed by Google and Mastercard.
- Recognized as GITEX Africa Supernova Champion 2024.
Work Experience
Apptorney
Founder & CEO (7 yrs 11 mos)
Lupiya
Co-founder & CTO (9 yrs 10 mos)
Circuit Business Solutions
Founder (11 yrs 6 mos)
Spar Zambia Ltd
Head of Information Technology (5 yrs 9 mos)
Education
Bachelor of Science (BSc) at University of Greenwich
GCE at Canisius Secondary School
