Airvend (formerly Callphone)
“Can a locally-licensed Nigerian payments company become the default agent-banking and bill-payment super-app for African merchants?”
Founded2015
HQLagos, Nigeria
IndustryFintech / Payments
The story
Founded in 2015 as Callphone, the company built a bill-payments platform for the Nigerian market. In 2022 it became the pioneer recipient of the CBN's first 3-in-1 PSS license, letting it operate as a payment gateway, POS deployer, and super-agent for agent banking under one entity. In January 2025 it rebranded to Airvend Payment Services Limited and repositioned as a super-app spanning B2B APIs, terminals, agency banking, B2C payments, Restaurant-as-a-Service, and virtual accounts.
Product timeline
2015
Founded as Callphone Limited in Nigeria· founding
2022
Awarded CBN's first-ever 3-in-1 Categorized Payment Solution Services (PSS) License (PSSP + PTSP + Super Agent)· regulatory
2025
Rebranded from Callphone to Airvend Payment Services Limited· pivot
Regulated entities
3
regulatory licences held by Airvend (formerly Callphone)
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
3 layers disclosed in Airvend (formerly Callphone)’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Airgate (self-operated)Airpay (self-operated)
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
Card network
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
4 more providers across 2 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.