DLA Piper Africa has advised leading pan-African fintech service provider, Cellulant Corporation, on its series C equity capital raising from The Rise Fund (TPG’s global impact investment fund), Endeavour Catalyst and Satya Capital. The company’s existing investors include Velocity Capital Private Equity, Progression Capital Africa and TBL Mirror Fund. The transaction is subject to various regulatory notifications and approvals.
Cellulant is a leading African mobile commerce company operating a payments ecosystem connecting financial sector customers, Mobile Network Operators and businesses to their increasingly mobile consumers in 11 African countries.
The DLA Piper Africa team was led by Corporate Partners Chris Baird and David Lekerai, based in London and Nairobi, respectively. Other team members include Alexander Kolmakov (Senior Associate, London), Callum Swanson (Associate, London), Ed Coates (Associate, London), Jesse Dalton (Senior Associate, London), Issa Omar (Associate, Nairobi) and Brian Kagunyi (Associate, Nairobi) as well as DLA Piper Africa offices in each of Mauritius, Zambia, Uganda, Ghana, Mozambique and Botswana.
Commenting on the transaction, Chris Baird stated: ”It has been an absolute pleasure working for Cellulant on this watershed transaction. As a truly pan-African mobile payments solution provider Cellulant continues to lead the way delivering transformative services for African’s most important growing business sectors.”
David Lekerai commented: ”DLA Piper Africa firm in Kenya, IKM, has represented Cellulant from its formative years and has seen the company grow from strength to strength, more so, to becoming a trail blazer and dominant player in the fintech space across Africa. We are extremely delighted to have been involved in this transaction, which will undoubtedly propel Cellulant to the global Fintech market.”