# MPesa and African Fintech — Investment Opportunities for Europeans **A.B.I Senior Analysis | February 2026** The African fintech market has undergone a seismic transformation over the past five years, and European investors who ignored this shift are now watching from the sidelines. M-Pesa, the mobile money platform that revolutionized Kenya and East Africa, remains the crown jewel of African financial technology—but it's no longer the only player worth watching. With the continent processing over $1.2 trillion in digital payments annually (a 47% increase from 2023), the fintech ecosystem presents a compelling investment thesis for European capital seeking exposure beyond saturated European markets. ## The M-Pesa Phenomenon: From Regional Success to Continental Infrastructure M-Pesa's trajectory deserves examination through an investor's lens. Launched in 2007 by Safaricom, the platform now serves 56 million active users across 10 countries, with transaction volumes exceeding $700 billion annually as of Q4 2025. In Kenya alone, M-Pesa handles approximately 2.2 billion transactions monthly, with an average transaction value of $45—a metric that reveals the platform's role not merely in remittances, but as genuine financial infrastructure. For European investors, the critical data point is profitability. Safaricom's fintech division generated $387 million in operating profit in FY2025,
