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CinetPay

“Can a single payment aggregator become the default embedded payments and disbursement rail for all of Francophone Africa?”

Founded2016
HQAbidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
FoundersIdriss Monthe, Daniel Dindji
Total raised$2.4M
Latest roundSeed, December 2021
IndustryFintech / Cross-border payments
The story

CinetPay was founded in 2016 after CEO Idriss Monthe struggled to collect payments for his earlier startup, CinetCore, a domain-name sales site, when PayPal repeatedly blocked African accounts. Recognizing that 80% of the Francophone African population holds mobile money accounts, he built a payment aggregator connecting online merchants to mobile money networks and bank cards (Visa, Mastercard) across Francophone Africa. The company has expanded from a pure payment gateway to a broader fintech platform covering bulk disbursements, school fee collection, airtime top-ups, and SMS APIs, positioning itself as the embedded payments OS for Francophone Africa.

Last 12 months
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Product timeline
2016
CinetPay founded by Idriss Monthe and Daniel Dindji in Abidjan to solve mobile money payment collection for online merchants in Francophone Africa.· pivot
2019
Established presence across major Francophone African markets including Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Cameroon, Togo, and Burkina Faso.· banking
2021
Raised $2.4M seed round led by 4DX Ventures and Flutterwave, marking the first Francophone Africa investment for both investors.· ipo
2022
Expanded product suite to include Mass Payout (bulk disbursement to mobile money accounts), Payment Links, School Fees collection, and API Direct solutions.· banking
The stack
1 layer disclosed in CinetPay’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
CinetPay (self-operated)
Accounting gap: significant