Seasoned global fintech leader joins Cellulant to strengthen financial leadership as the company scales its payments platform

NAIROBI, KENYA - African Media Agency - 19 March 2026 - Cellulant, Africa's leading payments technology company, has appointed Darren Makarem as Chief Financial Officer, strengthening its executive team as it accelerates its expansion as the preferred payments partner for global and regional enterprises.

Darren Makarem CFO Photo

The appointment comes as Cellulant builds on strong operational momentum, scaling its platform with greater financial discipline while delivering differentiated, product-led value to customers.

A seasoned finance and operations leader with over 20 years of experience in the digital and fintech sectors, Darren will help strengthen the company's financial strategy and operational foundations.

Having achieved profitability in 2024, Cellulant is leveraging its infrastructure, which processes over 4.5 million transactions daily, to serve Africa's digital payments economy, projected to reach $1.5 Trillion by 2030.*

A CFO Who Understands the Customer

Darren brings a strong understanding of payments from the customer side. As former Global CFO at Agoda, he oversaw the company's global payments network, managing annual transaction volumes of approximately $12 billion. In that role, he navigated multi-currency settlement, conversion rate optimisation, the need for reliable, high-uptime payment infrastructure and payment experiences that enable customer growth.

"Darren doesn't just understand the numbers; he understands the customer," said Peter O'Toole, CEO of Cellulant. "His experience as a high-volume user of payment services at Agoda gives him a unique perspective on what businesses need to grow. He will leverage these insights to build a finance centre of excellence, ensuring our financial operations are as innovative, agile, and customer-centric as our products."

Global Rigour Meets Emerging Market Expertise

Darren brings a rare blend of institutional rigour and experience scaling a global fintech platform. An ACA-qualified professional, he began his career with EY in England and later earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.

His experience spans complex regulatory and commercial landscapes, notably serving as APAC & LATAM CFO at Binance and, most recently, as CEO of OnRamp. This background in digital assets and regulated business models is particularly vital as Cellulant continues to explore new payment and settlement models.

Building for Sustainable Growth

For Darren, the opportunity at Cellulant is rooted in both the strength of the platform and the scale of the opportunity ahead.

"What excites me about Cellulant is the quality of what has already been built. A deep payment network, strong enterprise partnerships and a real focus on customer value," says Darren Makarem, Chief Financial Officer at Cellulant. "Cellulant's true strength is its people, obsessed with solving the toughest payment challenges in the market. My priority is to ensure the business has the financial discipline, insight and operational support to move fast, stay bold and keep delivering."

Cellulant continues to invest in the leadership, infrastructure, automation and organisational capability required to build a high-performance, product-centric business that is trusted by customers and positioned for sustained growth across the continent.

*Source: The Future of Digital Payments in Africa, a report by Genesis Analytics commissioned by Mastercard (2025).

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