Mastercard Partners With Flowcart in Africa

Mastercard announced a partnership on September 7 with Flowcart to embed secure card payments directly into social messaging conversations. The rollout begins in Kenya and plans to expand across East Africa as well as South Africa, Nigeria, and Côte d'Ivoire. The companies did not disclose commercial terms or expected payment values.

The integration lets merchants accept payments through embedded links, QR codes, or native checkout screens without requiring physical terminals or standalone websites. Tokenized card details will support repeat transactions. For Mastercard, the initiative seeks to turn everyday chat interactions into recurring volume and bring new card spending from businesses that previously did not accept cards.

The regional rollout enters a market dominated by alternatives. A World Bank assessment with data through 2024 highlighted widespread mobile money usage in Kenya and a declining ratio of bank cards to mobile money accounts. Merchant adoption and customer incentives will determine whether chat payments convert cash sales or shift transactions from competing networks.

Mastercard reported second-quarter 2026 net revenue of $9.3 billion, an increase of 14%, alongside $2.9 trillion in gross dollar volume. Separately, Insider Monkey reported that 158 hedge funds held shares of Mastercard at the end of the second quarter of 2026, up from 157 funds in the prior quarter.