Six years after a high-profile launch aimed at conquering East Africa’s payments market, the Kenyan subsidiary of global fintech PayU is shutting down.
According to a public notice filed under Kenya’s Insolvency Act, PayU Kenya Limited appointed Sonal Tejpal as its liquidator on August 19, 2025. The appointment, made during a general meeting of the company’s members, signals the formal winding up of its operations in the country.
The move marks a stark reversal from the company’s bullish entry in February 2019. At the time, PayU received approval from the Central Bank of Kenya and positioned its Nairobi hub as a gateway to the wider East African region, including Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda.
“Kenya is a powerful and growing market, ideally suited for investment and expansion for high velocity merchants,” Corrie Bakker, then PayU Africa’s Head of Strategy, stated during the launch.
A cornerstone of PayU’s strategy was a crucial partnership with pan-African payments company Cellulant. The collaboration was designed to give PayU immediate access to Kenya’s dominant mobile money ecosystem, where over 80% of transactions occur on mobile wallets, primarily M-PESA. PayU aimed to provide a single, integrated transaction point, with Cellulant ensuring the vital “hyper-localization” needed to succeed.
While PayU has not publicly disclosed the reasons for the liquidation, the closure comes as its primary local partner, Cellulant, has navigated its own significant challenges.
In 2024, Cellulant announced the departure of its CEO, Akshay Grover, just four months after reducing its workforce by approximately 20%. This followed an earlier round of layoffs and the shelving of a planned $100m Series D funding round in 2022. The company, which has raised a total of $54.5m, has since been under the leadership of an acting CEO.
PayU’s exit from Kenya highlights the intense competition and operational complexities of Africa’s fintech landscape. Despite being a global entity, its experience highlights that even well-funded international players can struggle to maintain a foothold without stable, high-performing local partnerships in a market defined by unique payment behaviours.