Talk360, a prominent calling app for Africans abroad, has announced the spin-off of its payment platform into a separate entity called “NjiaPay,” which will be led by a seasoned team of fintech executives.
Talk360 successfully raised $7 million in 2022, with investments from African venture investors and fintech angels from Europe and South Africa, including Adyen and Mollie executives, as well as Tyme Bank founders. Following the funding, Talk360 sought to not only expand its user base among the African diaspora in the UK, US, and South Africa but also began to investigate the possibility of establishing a modern payment aggregator designed to streamline and optimize the payment experience across the fragmented African market.
“To continue Talk360’s mission of connecting migrant communities globally, it is vital to capitalize on our strengths. By carving out our payment ambitions into NjiaPay, we’ve sharpened our focus on what we do best—connecting people through our calling app—while paving the way for a new opportunity to improve payments in Africa,” says Hans Osnabrugge, co-founder and CEO of Talk360. “Over the past two years, we’ve grown from connecting 2.3 million consumers to 4 million last year, fulfilling our promise to bridge migrant communities with their families back home.”
Dean Hiine, co-founder and MD for Africa at Talk360, adds, “The need for a unified payment solution in Africa is as critical today as it was two years ago. Unlike regions with unified payment systems, Africa’s 54 countries each have their own currencies, local payment methods, and distinct banking systems, creating a fragmented landscape with no single checkout solution or PSP for the continent. For Talk360, as well as other companies, addressing this immense challenge is paramount to offering users their preferred payment methods, especially in key markets like South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria.”
NjiaPay, set to launch services in Q1 2025, aims to revolutionize African payments by introducing a streamlined checkout process, addressing the continent’s diverse needs and transforming the complex and fragmented landscape.
Marika Beindorff, COO at Talk360, highlights the transformative impact of having a dedicated and knowledgeable team at NjiaPay handle their payments: “Having a single payment partner and experts with decades of experience has been a game-changer for us. In our pilot phase, we integrated multiple payment service providers (PSPs) into a single, unified checkout experience with optimized routing based on users’ characteristics. This unique approach led to a remarkable 25% increase in conversion rates, significant operational efficiencies, and cost savings.”
Osnabrugge concludes, “We are delighted that Jonatan Allback and Roderick Simons have opted to continue on this path and lead NjiaPay as a separate firm. Their experience has resulted in the development of a new superior platform and approach that outperforms anything we could have constructed ourselves.”
Leveraging machine learning and AI, it intelligently navigates the best-performing PSPs and payment methods, ensuring seamless transitions to alternate options and optimizing transaction success rates. No other solution offers the same level of expertise and commitment to addressing the challenges of accepting online payments that small and midsize merchants are facing across the African continent.
