“Can a pan-African payments gateway extend its merchant base into embedded credit and become the default financial rail for African SMEs?”
Founded in 2004 as a mobile banking play, Cellulant evolved into Africa's leading payments infrastructure company, anchored by its Tingg platform — a single-API gateway spanning 200+ payment methods (cards, bank transfers, mobile money) across 24+ African countries. The Nigeria entity operates as a CBN-licensed PPISP. After its $47.5M 2018 Series C, Cellulant expanded from B2B enterprise payments (airlines, telcos, remittances) into SME acceptance via Tingg Checkout / Instore, and is now moving into embedded finance and short-term merchant lending using transaction data for AI-based credit scoring.
Cellulant Nigeria processes payments through Tingg by Cellulant (self-operated).
Cellulant Nigeria's lending and capital products are provided by Cellulant merchant lending (in-house, partner-funded).
Cellulant Nigeria uses Tingg by Cellulant (self-operated) for FX and cross-border payouts.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 3 layers in Cellulant Nigeria's stack: Payments / PSP (Tingg by Cellulant (self-operated)); Lending (Cellulant merchant lending (in-house, partner-funded) and Merchant lending (short-term working capital, 7–90 days)); FX & payouts (Tingg by Cellulant (self-operated)).
Cellulant Nigeria was founded by Ken Njoroge and Bolaji Akinboro and is founded in 2004, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya (Nigeria operations).
Cellulant Nigeria has raised $54.5M in total (latest round: Series C, 2018).
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Cellulant Nigeria and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.