As part of its strategic plans to expand across the continent and accelerates its payment management capabilities for South African online businesses, payments management platform, NjiaPay has appointed fintech expert, and former Stitch general counsel, Mike McLaren as its new chief operating officer (COO).
NjiaPay launched early this year after closing a $1.3 million pre-seed round in January.
As a new player in the continent's payments ecosystem, the COO's appointment to the executive team aims to grow the company's footprint while tackling the diaspora's payment challenges.
His experience at Stitch, where he played a critical role in scaling their legal, regulatory, and compliance functions and helped close Stitch's $55 million Series B funding round, combined with his business, legal, and operational expertise, will be invaluable as NjiaPay enters new markets, according to the company.
NjiaPay's Payment Management Platform enables online businesses of all sizes improve profits by providing payment solutions that were previously only available to big corporations in Africa..
Since launching in South Africa as a key market, the fintech has been focusing on on-boarding businesses across industries such as hospitality, e-commerce, telecommunications, and local businesses exporting to international markets.
Jonatan Allback, CEO and co-founder of NjiaPay believes McLaren will help steer the company in its next phase of growth.
He said: “Mike brings a wealth of experience and expertise to our executive team and young company. He understands the complexities of African payments, having seen first-hand the challenges that our clients face in previous roles. I couldn’t be more excited to have him join and help us in our next phase of growth."
Commenting on his new appointment, McLaren added: “I’ve seen the payments landscape in Africa evolve rapidly, and what excites me about NjiaPay is the opportunity to tackle the fragmentation and inefficiencies in payments from an entirely new angle."
He continued: “NjiaPay’s platform gives businesses real control over their payments, something that’s been missing in the market. I’m thrilled to help NjiaPay achieve its vision of truly taking the complexity out of payments for online businesses and adding real value to African companies.”
Share