Cellulant
“Can a single API consolidate Africa's fragmented mobile-money, card, and bank rails into the default payments infrastructure for businesses operating on the continent?”
Founded2003
HQNairobi, Kenya
Total raised$54.5M+ (disclosed)
Latest roundSeries C, 2018
IndustryInfrastructure / Payments
The story
Founded 2003 (formerly Mula) as a mobile content/payments company, Cellulant evolved into Africa's leading payments infrastructure player, processing over 4.5 million transactions daily across 35+ markets. The 2018 Rise Fund-led $47.5M Series C marked its shift into a continent-scale payments aggregator, and the 2021 launch of Tingg consolidated its consumer/merchant payments stack. The company is now pushing further into embedded finance — exploring merchant lending and positioning Tingg as a single-API gateway to mobile money, banks, and cards across Africa.
Last 12 months
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Product timeline
2003
Founded in Nairobi as a mobile content/payments company.· founding
2018
Raised $47.5M Series C led by TPG Growth's The Rise Fund.· funding
2019
Partnered with Adyen to bring African payment methods to Adyen's global platform.· partnership
2020
Partnered with Entersekt for mobile banking security/authentication.· partnership
2021
Acquired PSP License in Ghana and rolled out Tingg payments platform.· banking
2024
Published updated merchant agreement / T&Cs governing API-based payment services.· product
Regulated entities
2
regulatory licences held by Cellulant
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
3 layers disclosed in Cellulant’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Tingg by Cellulant (self-operated)Tingg Checkout (self-operated)Tingg Instore (self-operated)
Lending
in the full report
FX & payouts
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
2 more providers across 2 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.