Ahmed Elbadry

Revolutionized financial inclusion in Africa through mobile payment infrastructure for SMEs

Ahmed Elbadry is an Egyptian software engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded Kopokopo, a financial technology platform enabling small businesses in Africa to accept digital payments. Growing up in Cairo, Elbadry witnessed how lack of access to banking services limited entrepreneurship opportunities. After studying computer science in Canada, he returned to Africa in 2013 to address this gap.

Kopokopo's API-based system allows merchants without bank accounts to process payments via mobile money, cards, and e-wallets. By 2019, the platform powered transactions for 50,000+ businesses across 8 countries, handling over $3 billion annually. The company's open-source payment SDK has been adopted by leading fintechs like Flutterwave and Paystack, creating a unified payments ecosystem.

Elbadry's work was recognized with the 2016 African Payment Innovation Award and a $3 million investment from Stripe. His TEDx talk "How to build a payment system for the rest of us" explains his vision of democratizing financial tools. The World Bank cited Kopokopo as a model for "FinTech4Inclusion" in their 2018 Global Findex Report.