iPay Africa
“Can a Kenya-born payment aggregator become the dominant multi-rail digital payments infrastructure layer across sub-Saharan Africa under the eLipa brand?”
Founded2010
HQNairobi, Kenya
IndustryFintech / Payments
The story
Founded in 2010 as a Kenya-focused online payment gateway for e-commerce merchants, iPay Africa (operated by Fivespot Kenya Limited) gradually broadened its rails from card-only to aggregating mobile money channels including M-PESA, Airtel Money, and Equitel alongside Visa, Mastercard, and UnionPay. The company expanded its API suite to cover C2B, B2B, B2C disbursements, recurring billing, and utility billing. Pan-African expansion is now underway under the eLipa brand in Uganda, Tanzania, and Togo, positioning iPay as a multi-country payment aggregator across East and West Africa.
Last 12 months
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Product timeline
2010
iPay founded by Fivespot Kenya Limited as a payment gateway for Kenyan e-commerce merchants.· payments
2019
Won Best Payments Integration Services Provider at the 3rd Digital Tech Excellence Awards.· pivot
2020
Won Best e-Commerce Payment Company at the Digital Tech Excellence Awards 2020.· payments
2021
Gold Award for Best Innovation in Payments at E-Commerce Awards 2021.· payments
2022
Gold Award for Payment Processing Platform of the Year at E-Commerce Awards 2022.· payments
2024
Expanded Pan-African operations under the eLipa brand, active in Uganda, Tanzania, and Togo.· pivot
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by iPay Africa
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
1 layer disclosed in iPay Africa’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
iPay Africa (self-operated)
Accounting gap: significant