Klasha Adds Former PayPal Executive to Help Transform African Commerce

Klasha has appointed former PayPal executive Ayman Jawhar CPO, saying his experience will help the company scale its B2B and B2C products for cross-border African commerce.

Jawhar joins the San Francisco and Lagos, Nigeria-based technology company with 15 years of experience at PayPal, Miro, Prodigy Finance and Next47, during which time he led new product line expansions in Africa, the Middle East and Europe, according to a press release.

“His vast experience in this area, at different stages of business evolutions, is truly invaluable, and we are lucky to have him,” Klasha Founder and CEO Jess Anuna said in the announcement. “His expertise will improve our B2B and B2C products, giving merchants more ways to sell in Africa seamlessly, and enhance the international shopping experience for customers.”

Klasha has designed a simple payment solution that works via WhatsApp, email or another messaging channel, enabling businesses to link recipients and make payments with a bank account, debit or credit card, or one of the supported mobile money services.

Read more: Social Commerce Unlocks Growth for Brands, FinTechs in Africa

According to Anuna, “offline and online businesses and sole traders alike [can] accept payments from Africa without having to worry about integration processes, writing code or even owning a website.”

The appointment of Jawhar comes about two months after Klasha announced it had raised another $2.1 million and closed a $4.5 million seed round.

As of Wednesday (Aug. 10), the company said it has signed up 2,000 merchants and processed 250,000 transactions.

“Connecting Africa’s commerce to the rest of the world is a hugely exciting opportunity, full of [unutilized] potential, and there is no better company to do this with than Klasha,” Jawhar said in the press release. “Klasha is building products to fulfil that potential and be a game-changer for the [eCommerce] market.”

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