James Mugambi

James Mugambi is the co-founder and COO of Kolan (originally Hurupay), the East African cross-border payments platform he built alongside Philip Mburu and Allan Okoth after the three met through the Sankore Academy blockchain coding camp. Based in Kenya, Mugambi leads operations and partnerships, overseeing the business relationships and processes that have helped Kolan process over $50 million in transactions since January 2025. His operational focus has been on the practical complexity of building compliant payments infrastructure across markets where regulatory environments, banking relationships, and customer behaviour vary significantly.

Mugambi belongs on the Borderless 100 because East Africa represents one of the most active frontiers in African fintech, and Kolan is among the companies building the infrastructure that makes cross-border payments accessible to the continent's fast-growing cohort of globally employed workers. His role in keeping that infrastructure operational through regulatory headwinds makes him as important to the company's survival as its technical founders.