Mastercard Partners With Flowcart to Expand Social Commerce Payments in Kenya
Mastercard has entered a collaboration with Flowcart to enable secure card payments directly within social and conversational commerce journeys, starting with Kenya.
The partnership will allow consumers to discover products, place orders and complete payments within a single chat-based interaction without being redirected to external websites or applications.
The collaboration will initially launch in Kenya before expanding across East Africa and other high-growth markets, including South Africa, Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire. The companies also plan to scale the solution across other African markets.
The initiative combines Flowcart’s AI-powered commerce orchestration platform with Mastercard’s global payment network to support embedded payment experiences across social and conversational commerce channels.
Mastercard Targets Kenya’s Social Commerce Market
The Mastercard Flowcart partnership comes as conversational commerce continues to expand in Kenya, with WhatsApp accounting for more than 20 percent of all online shopping orders in the country, according to the information provided by the companies.
The solution is designed to allow merchants to manage the customer journey from product discovery through payment within a conversation. The companies said the model is intended to support transaction frequency, repeat purchases and payment acceptance among underserved and informal commerce segments.
“Social commerce is redefining how consumers discover and engage with brands. Our collaboration with Flowcart enables us to embed secure, seamless payments directly into these experiences, unlocking new growth opportunities for merchants and expanding digital payment acceptance in one of Africa’s fastest-growing digital economies,” said Shehryar Ali, Senior Vice President and Country Manager for East Africa and Indian Ocean Islands at Mastercard.
Chat-To-Pay Payments for Kenyan Merchants
The solution will support Kenya’s growing creator economy by enabling social sellers to monetize audiences directly through the platforms where they interact with customers.
Under the arrangement, consumers can move from product discovery to purchase and repeat transactions within the same conversation. Payments can be completed through embedded links, QR codes or native checkout flows powered by Mastercard Gateway and its network of acquiring partners.
As part of Mastercard’s Merchant Cloud portfolio, Mastercard Gateway provides merchants with a single connection for payment acceptance and supports commerce experiences across markets and channels.
The integration is also intended to serve businesses of different sizes, ranging from independent social sellers and small and medium-sized enterprises to large brands using WhatsApp as a commerce channel.
“We are excited to collaborate with Mastercard to transform how businesses transact in social channels, whether that’s an independent social seller, a fast-growing SME or a large enterprise brand running WhatsApp as a core commerce channel,” said Ananth Gudipati, Founder of Flowcart.
“Together, we are enabling a future where commerce and payments happen seamlessly within conversations, driving higher conversion, repeat purchases and meaningful growth for merchants,” he said.
