Dutch firm PayU partners with Cellulant in Kenya entry

Netherlands-based payment platforms technology provider PayU on Thursday announced a partnership with Kenya’s Cellulant to launch its local operations.

PayU Africa head of strategy and business development Corrie Bakker said Cellulant, which has expanded its services across Africa, had expertise in formulating pay platforms that integrate payment channels.

“We formulated a key partnership with Cellulant to ensure hyper-localisation and payment method expansion. Kenya is a powerful and growing market, ideally suited for investment and expansion for high velocity merchants,” he said.

Mr Bakker said its entry into Kenya underpinned the strategic expansion across East Africa.

PayU, which received a commercial licence last February, said its platform will see mobile cash payment services embedded on its platform to enable Kenyans and online merchants conclude transactions with ease within and across the borders.

Cellulant’s one-stop mobile payments platforms have been used to connect businesses and governments in Africa where they offer consumer payments, digital and neighbourhood agency banking and remittance solutions.

Recently, PayU invested Sh50 billion in acquiring several fintech firms across Europe, Middle East and Asia among them Wibmo, Citrus, PaySense and Zest Money.

The firm has also invested in Creditas, LazyPay, Remitly and Israeli-based Zooz.

“Each of these acquisitions and investments allows us to future-proof PayU and the services it can offer to merchant and customer alike,” said Mr Bakker.