Tembo

What Tembo does

Tembo is a licensed payment infrastructure provider founded in 2020 and headquartered in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, with a secondary office in New York. The company operates an API-first platform that connects fintechs, platforms, merchants, and enterprises to African local payment rails, including direct integrations with commercial banks (Ecobank, CRDB Bank), mobile money operators, telcos, and programmable bank-account infrastructure. Its core value proposition is abstracting the fragmented and heavily regulated nature of African payments — multiple currencies, jurisdictions, and rail types — into a single compliant API with country-specific licensing baked into the operating model.

The product surface spans six core offerings: Wallets & Bank Accounts, Payment Collections, Payouts & Disbursements, Virtual Accounts, Cross-Border Payments, and Remittance Termination. These are delivered through secure APIs, operator dashboards, reconciliation tooling, and compliance workflows, with self-serve developer documentation hosted at tembo.gitbook.io. The technology stack integrates disparate African payment rails (bank, mobile money, telco) into a unified interface, supported by virtual account generation for traceable collections and direct local-rail connectivity.

Tembo monetizes through a combination of transaction fees on payments, collections, payouts, and cross-border transfers, plus recurring platform services tied to licensed infrastructure and bank partnerships. Pricing is not publicly disclosed; enterprise sales run via [email protected]. The company has assembled a visible integration partner and customer ecosystem that includes Ecobank, Flutterwave, dLocal, Onafriq, NALA, PalmPay, Fincra, Verto, XTransfer, SasaPay, PayerMax, CRDB Bank, and Capi Money. It has completed at least one seed funding round in January 2023 with investors including Hustle Fund, Microtraction, and Seedstars.

Name

Tembo

Legal name

Tembo

Website

https://temboplus.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Tembo provides licensed payment infrastructure APIs that connect fintechs, platforms, merchants, and enterprises to African bank rails, mobile money systems, and programmable accounts for collections, payouts, and cross-border transfers across the continent.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Payment Infrastructure

NAICS

Financial Transactions Processing, Reserve, and Clearinghouse Activities (522320)

akta.pro primary industry

Cross-Border FX, Multi-Currency & Treasury for Payments (FSAGABAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Cross-Border Payouts & Mass Disbursements (Pay-outs) (FSAMAIAJ), Consumer Remittances (P2P) (FSAMAIAA), Alternative Payment Methods (APMs) & Local Rails (ACH/SEPA/UPI, etc.) (CRAFALAG)

Keywords

• Payment infrastructure
• Mobile money integration
• Cross-border payments
• Virtual accounts
• Remittance termination

Headquarters

HQ city

Dar Es Salaam

HQ country

Tanzania

HQ region

Africa

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. API Transaction Fees: Revenue generated from transaction processing fees for payments, collections, payouts, and cross-border transfers facilitated through the API infrastructure.
2. Platform Services: Revenue from providing licensed payment infrastructure, regulated bank partnerships, and compliance workflows to fintechs and enterprises.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Tembo provides licensed payment infrastructure for Africa through a single API, enabling fintechs, platforms, merchants, and enterprises to collect, store, and move money across African markets. Its offering combines direct integrations with African banks, mobile money operators, and telcos with country-specific regulatory licensing, programmable wallets and bank accounts, virtual accounts, cross-border settlement, and remittance termination capabilities.

Product overview

Tembo is a licensed payment infrastructure platform for Africa offering a unified suite of six core products accessible via a single API: Wallets & Bank Accounts, Payment Collections, Payouts & Disbursements, Virtual Accounts, Cross-Border Payments, and Remittance Termination. The platform provides secure APIs, compliant local rails, bank partnerships, and mobile money integrations that help businesses collect, store, and move money reliably across African markets.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Wallets & Bank Accounts Enables fintechs, platforms, merchants, and enterprises to launch customer wallets and programmable bank accounts with regulated partner banks, supporting local money movement and secure fund storage across African markets.
• Payment Collections Allows businesses to collect customer deposits, invoice payments, marketplace funds, and recurring payments across bank and mobile money channels through a single API and dashboard for African markets.
• Payouts & Disbursements Automates supplier payments, payroll, loan disbursements, agent commissions, and customer withdrawals to bank accounts and mobile money wallets across African markets.
• Virtual Accounts Generates unique account numbers for users, businesses, or transactions so collections are traceable, reconciled, and visible in real time across African payment rails.
• Cross-Border Payments Connects local African payment rails to regional and international settlement workflows for importers, platforms, and companies operating across markets.
• Remittance Termination Helps remittance partners deliver funds directly into local African bank accounts and mobile money wallets with compliant last-mile payout coverage.

Named customers13 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• EcobankcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with Ecobank for direct access to their pan-African banking network and local payment rails across multiple African markets.
• FlutterwavecoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration partnership with Flutterwave for pan-African payment technology connectivity and infrastructure sharing.
• NALAcoreTechnology or IntegrationPartnership with NALA for payment infrastructure connectivity enabling their African fintech services.
• VertocoreTechnology or IntegrationCross-border payment integration partnership with Verto for international payment flows.
• dLocalcoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration partnership with dLocal for emerging markets payment connectivity.
• OnafriqcoreTechnology or IntegrationPartnership with Onafriq for African payment and financial services integration.
• CRDB BankcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with CRDB Bank for Tanzania market local banking rails and compliance infrastructure.
• PalmPaycoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration with PalmPay for mobile payment and financial services connectivity.
• SasaPaycoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration with SasaPay for Kenyan mobile payment connectivity.

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Fincra: African payment infrastructure provider offering collections, payouts, virtual accounts, and APIs to businesses across multiple African markets. A near-clone of Tembo's product positioning.
• Flutterwave: Pan-African payment platform offering collections, payouts, virtual accounts, and cross-border APIs across multiple African markets. Direct competitor to Tembo's core product suite and also a listed customer/partner of Tembo.
• dLocal: Public emerging-markets payment processor connecting global merchants to local payment rails across Africa, Asia, and LatAm. Overlaps directly with Tembo's cross-border and local-rail collection capabilities.
• Onafriq (formerly MFS Africa): African mobile money and cross-border payments hub connecting 500+ mobile wallets and 200+ banks. A direct infrastructure competitor and listed partner of Tembo.
• Verto: Cross-border B2B payments platform serving emerging markets with collections, FX, and payouts. Directly competes with Tembo's Cross-Border Payments and Payouts products.

Emerging players

• NALA: African remittance startup enabling money transfer into mobile money wallets and bank accounts. Competes with Tembo's Remittance Termination product and is also a listed Tembo customer.
• Cellulant: Pan-African digital payments platform offering mobile money aggregation, collections, disbursements, and banking APIs. Overlaps with Tembo's mobile money and disbursements offerings.

Broad incumbents

• Paystack: Stripe-owned African payment gateway providing collections and payouts APIs primarily to merchants. Competes with Tembo's Payment Collections product but has a narrower product surface.
• Chipper Cash: African cross-border consumer remittance and payments app with proprietary rails. Adjacent competitor in remittance and cross-border flows.
• Interswitch: Largest established African digital payments and commerce company, providing switching, processing, and payment infrastructure across Nigeria and broader Africa.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/TemboPlus

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors3 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Tembo