TPAY - Afrikan Heroes

TPAY Announces Işık Uman as Group Chief Executive Officer

July 4, 2023

TPAY, the leader in payments in the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey (META), has named Işık Uman as its new Group CEO, effective 1st of July 2023. Işık Uman, who has been acting Chief Product Officer as well as Chief Marketing Officer for the last year, will succeed current CEO Gaston Aussems, who will move into a strategic advisory role.

“I am confident that under Işık’s guidance, TPAY will witness tremendous growth, remarkable achievements, and setting new standards of excellence in the region,” said Gaston Aussems. “And I feel privileged to have had the chance to work with all talented members of the TPAY family.”

“I am very excited to take the helm from Gaston now.”, Işık Uman commented. “Gaston and the team did a great job. My main focus will be to deploy a true merchant-centric approach that exceeds the region’s expectations. I believe TPAY has enormous potential, and we will work to deliver exceptional products and innovative solutions to our merchants.”

Işık Uman has been working as the Chief Product Officer (CPO) at TPAY. He joined TPAY’s executive leadership in 2020, right after the acquisition of the Turkish payments start-up, Payguru, of which he had been a founding partner and the Chairman. Işık brings a wealth of experience working with mobile network operators. He led the buy-out of Neomobile’s Turkish mobile payment business, which, under the Payguru brand in 2016, became the first Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) company to which the Turkish Financial Regulator granted a payment license. Under his leadership, Payguru became a successful Turkish alternative payment provider, processing $70 million a year through its DCB and Bank Transfer services.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Bango Teams Up With TPAY To Enable More Merchants Launch eCommerce Operations In Africa

January 23, 2021

Bango, the data-driven commerce company, and TPay Mobile the full-service digital payments platform for the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey, have formed a strategic partnership to increase access to digital commerce. This partnership simplifies and accelerates entry into new markets for online merchants by connecting platforms and pooling operational expertise.

The Bango Platform is used by the world’s most successful online businesses, including Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, to bring their products and services to billions of users worldwide. By collaborating with TPAY MOBILE, Bango’s merchant partners will more quickly be able to gain access to an estimated 1.5 billion people, thanks to the massive footprint of carrier billing and wallet providers TPAY MOBILE has in Africa, the Middle East, and Turkey, which are now available through the Bango Platform.

TPAY MOBILE has pioneered digital commerce and financial inclusion in the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey. Its technology is used by regional digital merchants and international brands like Google, Apple, Unity, Huawei, PUBG, and Tencent to connect to consumers across MEA and Turkey. These merchants can now scale globally through the worldwide payment reach enabled by the Bango Platform. In addition, merchants integrated to either Bango or TPAY MOBILE can accelerate revenue growth from their products and services, by using Bango Audiences in marketing programs, which attract more paying customers through payment behavior targeting.

“This partnership significantly increases the value of the digital commerce ecosystem for customers of both Bango and TPAY MOBILE”, said Paul Larbey, Bango CEO. “It accelerates Bango towards a key goal, to put people at the center of commerce by enabling financial inclusion for everyone.”

Sahar Salama, CEO of TPAY MOBILE, commented: “This partnership with Bango — a global leader and innovator in online commerce — represents another significant milestone in TPAY MOBILE’s journey, reiterating our strategy around collaboration as the chosen route for making an impact in the age of unrivaled growth of APIs and the platform economy. It also reinforces our commitment to continuously invest, now into the global ecosystem, to unlock the value of digital commerce and financial inclusion across MEA and Turkey.”

Through the partnership, Bango and TPAY MOBILE will leverage their technology and increase operational capacity to simplify the path for online merchants to launch into Turkey, Africa, and the Middle East. Bango and TPAY MOBILE’s partnership gives more opportunities for mobile network operators in Africa, the Middle East and Turkey to capitalize on customer demand for online content and services.

Bango will also expand through TPAY MOBILE its purchase behaviour targeting technology — Bango Audiences — to include more countries in the region, where acquiring users that have the ability to spend in-app has been difficult for marketers before.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer