Cellulant, the Kenya-based payments company active in 33 African markets, is hoping that it will be a corporate model to follow rather than a cautionary tale. Transitioning between executives in relatively young companies that have been built from the ground up is always a tricky endeavour. Africa’s corporate landscape is full of instances where outgoing executives and board members have picked the wrong candidate for the job and the business begins to suffer. Cellulant started out as a business-to-consumer (B2C) payments business, before pivoting to business-to-business (B2B) software for digital banking and finally settling on its role as a payments company for banks and corporates. It became very clear once the strategy and direction had been set for Cellulant 3.0 that the business could benefit from a fresh set of hands, with a different set of skills. Cellulant did gross transaction value of about $1bn last month, and to my mind if we are not growing at three times or four times in 12 months.
enormous potential in a space that boasts three out of four of Africa’s unicorns – startup companies valued at over $1bn. The latest success story came from Nigeria’s payments company Flutterwave, which raised $170m in a Series C funding round in March, pushing its value to over $1bn and making it the latest African unicorn. Payments companies in general have benefited enormously from Covid-19 as customers and corporates were pushed online to make transactions. With less risk than lending and insurance, payments are the low-hanging fruit of financial services. One of the darkest moments was the tragic loss of six employees during a terror attack on the DusitD2 hotel and office complex in Nairobi in January 2019. The company has since relocated to another office space in downtown Nairobi. Payments companies in Africa have witnessed monumental growth over the past few years, but some factors may hamper the market. Regulators and central banks are beginning to move into the payments space, often processing transactions for zero fees. Linking up with banks and customers, the public platforms are playing in the same space as private companies.