CarbonPesa began with a moment of frustration. Our founder, Michael Mutua, found himself broke and hungry with KSh 144 sitting on his phone as airtime, a digital asset that could not buy a loaf of bread. That moment revealed something larger: airtime is the most widely distributed digital asset in Kenya, yet it is trapped in a liquidity gap. Millions of Kenyans carry value on their SIM cards that they cannot use for everyday needs.
Michael built the technology to bridge that gap, creating an engine that converts airtime into liquid assets through M-Pesa. That infrastructure became the foundation for something bigger. If mobile transactions could move value seamlessly, they could also move climate action. Every payment, every till number, every paybill could carry a carbon calculation and an automatic offset.
CarbonPesa was born from the insight that the same mobile money rails powering Kenya's digital economy could power its green economy too.