Cellulant Listed on KPMG’s 2018 Fintech100

By Vera Shawiza / Published October 31, 2018 | 8:02 am

Cellulant has been named among the Top 50 emerging Fintech companies in the world in this year’s KPMG FinTech100 report.

The 2018 KPMG Fintech100 report highlights truly innovative companies creating products and services at the nexus of technology and financial services.

Cellulant was among this year’s list of ‘Emerging 50’ firms exciting new companies that are at the forefront of innovative technologies and practices and are often pursuing new business models.

The annual report now in its fifth edition has featured companies from 36 countries divided into two categories; The ‘Top 50’ – established Fintech firms around the globe, ranked based on innovation, capital raising activity, size, and country. And the ‘Emerging 50’ firms.

“Being listed as one of the only 3 African new and exciting companies that are disrupting the financial services industry globally is a vindication of our vision to become the leading financial services and payments brand in Africa,” said Cellulant’s Co-CEO Bolaji Akinboro.

Akinboro noted that their commitment is to continue scaling a payments infrastructure that can transform two-thirds of Africans who do not have access to a bank account.

“We believe that building a connected payments infrastructure is the foundation of solving real challenges and accelerating Africa’s growth and development,” added Bolaji Akinboro.

Cellulant is a leading digital payments provider that reaches 40 million people across 11 African countries

The company was selected for operating a one-stop payments ecosystem in Africa; connecting businesses and governments to increasingly mobile consumers and for being the only African company to land the largest investment in the Fintech arena.

Cellulant now operates in 11 countries, with roughly 12 percent of Africa’s mobile consumers now able to make payments using their services and products. Cellulant is now building Agrikore- a blockchain based smart-contracting, payments marketplace that ensures every stakeholder in the agriculture value chain can do business in a trusted and transparent environment.

Cellulant, among 100 companies on the list, has together raised over US$52B in venture capital. This is more than double the 2017 figure. In the last 12 months alone, these companies have also raised US$28B of capital.

Early this year, Cellulant secured $47.5 million in its Series C round of funding. This is the largest deal of its kind dedicated solely to Africa’s Fintech and payments space. The funding round was led by The Rise Fund. The Rise Fund is an impact investment fund operated by TPG Growth private equity group based in the US. Other startups that participated in the round include Velocity Capital & Progression Africa, Endeavor Catalyst, and Satya Capital.

About Vera Shawiza

Vera Shawiza is Soko Directory’s in-house journalist. Her zealous nature ensures that sufficient and relevant content is generated for the Soko Directory website and sourcing information from clients is easy as smooth sailing.Vera can be reached at: (020) 528 0222 or Email: info@sokodirectory.com

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