WayaWaya, a Kenyan company building AI-powered financial services for banks and merchants, has partnered with microfinance bank Choice Bank to expand its platform with banking services.
The service, WayaWaya Banking, will allow customers to open bank accounts, hold funds in multiple currencies, make local and international transfers, and pay utilities through a platform regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). Under the partnership, Choice Bank will provide the regulated banking infrastructure, while WayaWaya will build the technology and manage the customer experience.
The partnership is WayaWaya’s latest effort to strengthen its banking relationships as it prepares for expansion. In July, the company appointed Raj Singh, a former Group Chief Operating Officer and Director of Retail Banking at Chase Bank Kenya, as a non-executive director and board adviser to help guide its strategy, governance and expansion. At the time, Teddy Ogallo, founder and CEO of WayaWaya, described the appointment as “an important point” in the company’s growth.
“Traditionally, banks build applications around products and expect customers to adapt to them. We believe the future should be the opposite: banking should adapt to the customer,” Ogallo said in a statement on Friday. “Whether you are an entrepreneur, a salaried professional or an investor, your banking experience should reflect what you actually need to accomplish financially.”
Founded in 2016 by Ogallo, WayaWaya develops digital banking tools for individuals and businesses. Its latest offering builds on a strategy to use AI to interpret customers’ financial activity and determine which banking services should be most visible and accessible to them.
The company calls this approach Intelligent Adaptive Banking. WayaWaya will use AI to tailor the banking interface to how people earn, spend, save and invest. The personalisation is also designed to evolve as customers’ financial circumstances change. If a salaried customer starts a business, the platform could recognise the change in their financial activity and give more prominence to tools for receiving business payments and tracking expenses.
“We are building technology that can interpret financial activity and identify patterns that help determine which services, tools and information are most relevant to a customer,” Ogallo said. “The idea is to move beyond customers having to search for financial services. Instead, the platform can increasingly anticipate their needs and make relevant financial capabilities accessible within their banking environment.”
WayaWaya said its AI analyses patterns in customers’ incoming and outgoing transactions, spending behaviour, account balances, payment frequency and recurring transactions. Ogallo said the technology is intended to identify patterns and surface relevant services while leaving customers in control, acknowledging that individual transactions do not always provide the full context of someone’s financial behaviour.
Choice Bank is central to delivering these services. The microfinance bank provides application programming interface (API) banking solutions, banking-as-a-service, private banking and foreign exchange services. Its infrastructure will enable customers to access banking services within WayaWaya’s app.
“Through this partnership, Choice Bank will provide the banking infrastructure that enables WayaWaya users to access banking services within the app,” said Patrick Russel, Choice Bank’s chief commercial officer. “WayaWaya can then tailor how those services are presented to a business owner managing daily collections or an individual setting money aside.”
WayaWaya is entering a market with deeply established digital financial services. Kenya had 54 million mobile money subscriptions in June 2026, according to the Communications Authority of Kenya. Safaricom’s M-PESA accounted for 88.8% of those subscriptions, while Airtel Money held 11.1%. WayaWaya acknowledges M-Pesa’s role in shaping the market but says its proposition extends beyond mobile money transactions.
“M-Pesa transformed how Kenyans transact, and we recognise that contribution. Our ambition is different. We are bringing together broader banking capabilities, including multi-currency accounts, local and international transfers and utility payments, within an intelligent banking environment,” Ogallo said. “What differentiates WayaWaya is that we don’t just provide financial services; we are building technology that adapts how customers access and experience those services.”
The company said it wants to take this model beyond Kenya, relying on banks and financial infrastructure providers in other African markets. However, expanding the model will require local banking partnerships and regulatory approvals in each market.
“A business expanding from Kenya into Nigeria or Uganda should not have to navigate an entirely disconnected financial experience in every market,” Ogallo said. “Our ambition is to make financial services more interconnected, accessible and responsive to the needs of African individuals and businesses.”