One month after selling a long-serving engineer to steer its know-how group, Cellulant has appointed former Agoda CFO Darren Makarem as its new finance chief, finishing a management overhaul because the Kenyan funds processor renews its pan-African development plans.
Makarem joins Cellulant from Agoda, the web journey big, the place, as International CFO, he oversaw a funds community managing over $12 billion in annual transaction volumes. His expertise in such a multi-currency settlement and high-uptime fee infrastructure provides him what the corporate described as a uncommon “customer-side” understanding of the funds enterprise.
The rent follows the February appointment of Michael Muriuki as chief product and know-how officer, seen because the fintech’s effort to rebuild Cellulant’s government backbone after a interval marked by management exits and strategic recalibration.
“Darren doesn’t simply perceive the numbers; he understands the shopper,” Cellulant CEO Peter O’Toole advised TechCabal. “He’ll leverage these insights to construct a finance centre of excellence, making certain our monetary operations are as revolutionary, agile, and customer-centric as our merchandise.”
Reset mode
The chief reshuffle comes as Cellulant builds on sturdy operational momentum. The corporate, which processes over 4.5 million transactions each day, achieved profitability in 2024 and is positioning itself to seize a bigger share of Africa’s digital funds, projected to succeed in $1.5 trillion by 2030.
Earlier than Agoda, Makarem additionally held roles at Binance as regional CFO for APAC and LATAM, and most lately served as CEO of OnRamp, giving him publicity to digital belongings and the evolving regulatory atmosphere.
Cellulant is betting that his background may show helpful because it experiments with various settlement rails and expands its cross-border fee enterprise.
“What excites me about Cellulant is the standard of what has already been constructed,” Makarem advised TechCabal. “My precedence is to make sure the enterprise has the monetary self-discipline, perception, and operational help to maneuver quick, keep daring, and preserve delivering.”
With Makarem overseeing monetary technique and Muriuki answerable for product improvement and platform scalability, Cellulant has stuffed two government roles because it seeks to deepen its presence throughout over 20 African markets and compete for enterprise purchasers in opposition to fintech rivals and banks creating in-house fee capabilities.
Elevate your perspective with NextTech Information, the place innovation meets perception.
Uncover the most recent breakthroughs, get unique updates, and join with a world community of future-focused thinkers.
Unlock tomorrow’s traits immediately: learn extra, subscribe to our publication, and turn into a part of the NextTech group at NextTech-news.com
