TechVoicesSafaricom is spending $500 million to make M-Pesa a software company
The plan runs to 2030: AI in fraud and customer service, a Nairobi data campus, and a super-app where other startups can live.
Illustration. Reporting is based on company statements and published accounts of the round or the bill.
Safaricom is in the middle of a three-year, $500 million push to turn itself from a telecoms operator into the company that runs Kenya’s everyday software. The money is for AI infrastructure, a rebuilt M-Pesa, and tools other startups can plug into.
M-Pesa, with tens of millions of active users in Kenya and a growing book in Ethiopia, has been moving onto a cloud-based platform the company calls Fintech 2.0. The stated aims are higher transaction throughput, faster fraud checks, and fewer problems that need a person on a phone. Ziidi Trader lets customers buy stocks and bonds inside the same relationship. Daraja 3.0, opened in November 2025, lets developers ship mini-apps into the M-Pesa Super App. The company has said the shelf now holds more than 80 of them, across health, travel, and insurance.
The compute sits at NBOX1 in Nairobi, a data campus built with iXAfrica and designed for about 22.5 megawatts, which would make it the largest in Greater East Africa. Safaricom’s own AI work includes the Zuri assistant and network tools built with partners including AWS and Huawei.
Startups meet the company through the Spark Accelerator, run with M-Pesa Africa, Sumitomo, and iHub. The second cohort, chosen in September 2025 from more than 200 applicants, focused on embedded finance, AI, tools for small businesses, and the creative economy. Ten companies went through to a demo day in February 2026.
None of this is charity. A telco that owns the wallet, the agent network, and the app store does not need to win every startup. It needs those startups to need M-Pesa.
