Financial Innovation Expansion Enabled by Clowd9 Spans Lagos to London's Financial Sector
Clowd9 Revolutionizes African Fintech with Affordable, Cloud-Native Payment Solutions
Clowd9, a leading global platform, is making waves in the African fintech scene by providing a unified solution that addresses the cross-border challenges faced by startups. The company's strategy revolves around a cloud-native payments platform that drastically reduces costs and removes the limitations of traditional legacy card schemes like Visa and Mastercard [1][2].
At the heart of Clowd9's approach is a cloud-native architecture that eliminates the need for physical data centers and excess hardware. This flexibility and scalability make it an ideal fit for African markets. The company also offers a pay-as-you-use pricing model, allowing fintechs to only pay for what they consume, easing cash flow and supporting agile growth [1][2].
Clowd9's expertise is rooted in its experience powering leading European fintechs, such as Revolut, Monzo, and Starling Bank. The company has taken lessons from these partnerships and adapted them to address Africa's unique challenges [1][2]. In addition, Clowd9 partners with SaaScada, a cloud-native core banking platform, to offer an end-to-end modern banking solution [3][4].
This approach stands in stark contrast to major players like Visa and Mastercard, which rely on legacy card infrastructure that is costly, rigid, and often limits the ability of African fintech startups to scale efficiently. Traditional systems from Visa and Mastercard involve expensive setup and fixed fees, less flexibility, and physical infrastructure commitments that do not align well with the fast-evolving, cost-sensitive African fintech environment.
Clowd9's co-founder and CEO, Suresh Vaghjiani, announced a 90% reduction in card service infrastructure costs for African fintech startups, delivering payment services at less than 10% of the cost charged by major providers [1][2]. This affordability empowers local fintech startups to innovate and scale without prohibitive financial or geographic constraints.
The visit of Clowd9 to Lagos, Nigeria, underscores the city's growing role as a key hub in global fintech strategy. Lagos is propelled by a dynamic startup ecosystem, strong creative talent, and practical innovation shaped by real-world challenges. The state's Commissioner for Innovation, Science and Technology, Olatunbosun Alake, emphasized the state's bold investments in digital infrastructure and support for grassroots startups.
Alake called for the creation of the Lagos-London Innovation Corridor, grounded in shared value, ethical AI, and fintech infrastructure linking the global North and South. He urged UK investors to move past surface-level engagements and embrace deeper collaboration with Nigerian innovators. Vaghjiani noted that companies like Moneypoint and Flutterwave are helping to shift the negative narrative about Nigerian firms expanding abroad.
British capital meeting Nigerian creativity is seen as defining the future of global tech, according to Alake. Innovation hubs have been established in underserved areas of Lagos, and over 4,000km of fiber optics have been laid in the city. Clowd9 aims to bring its European success to Africa by equipping Nigerian startups with affordable, scalable infrastructure.
In summary, Clowd9’s strategy is uniquely focused on disrupting legacy payment models through cloud-native, cost-efficient technology tailored to the needs of African fintechs. This contrasts with the high-cost, less flexible legacy systems of Visa and Mastercard, which remain dominant but are less adaptive to the continent’s rapid fintech growth and inclusion goals [1][2][3][4].
[1] Clowd9: The Cloud-Native Payments Platform for African Fintechs (clowd9.com) [2] Clowd9 and SaaScada Partner to Power the Next Generation of African Fintech (prnewswire.com) [3] Clowd9: A Game Changer in the Fintech Industry (fintechmagazine.com) [4] Clowd9: The Future of African Fintech (techcrunch.com)
- The affordability and scalability offered by Clowd9's cloud-native architecture makes it an ideal fit for the dynamic startup ecosystem in African business, disrupting traditional finance models and revolutionizing the general-news landscape.
- By partnering with SaaScada and empowering fintechs with pay-as-you-use pricing, Clowd9 is democratizing technology, bridging the gap between the global North and South, and supporting agile growth in the African fintech ecosystem.
