Kenyan technology startup Flowcart has partnered with Mastercard to embed card payments directly into social and conversational commerce, potentially changing how African businesses convert WhatsApp conversations into completed sales.
Flowcart operates an AI-powered conversational commerce and customer relationship management platform built around WhatsApp.
Under the collaboration, customers can discover products, interact with businesses, place orders and complete payments within a single conversational journey rather than being redirected to another website or application.
The model addresses an important gap in African e-commerce.
Millions of transactions begin informally through WhatsApp, Instagram and other social platforms, particularly among small businesses that do not operate sophisticated e-commerce websites.
But turning those conversations into secure digital transactions can be cumbersome.
Turning Conversations Into Checkout
Traditional online shopping typically separates several stages.
Customers discover a product, move to an e-commerce site, add an item to a basket, enter payment information and complete checkout.
Every additional step creates an opportunity for a potential buyer to abandon the transaction.
Flowcart wants to compress that journey.
Its technology allows merchants to manage customer interactions and sales through conversational interfaces, while Mastercard provides the payment infrastructure supporting transactions.
Flowcart founder Ananth Gudipati said the collaboration is designed for businesses ranging from independent social sellers and SMEs to larger brands using WhatsApp as an important commercial channel.
Kenya First, Africa Next
The partnership will initially launch in Kenya before expanding across East Africa and into markets including South Africa, Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire, with broader pan-African expansion planned.
That expansion strategy reflects the scale of the opportunity.
African commerce remains heavily influenced by small businesses and informal sellers, many of which interact with customers through messaging applications rather than conventional websites.
Giving those merchants easier access to integrated digital payments could bring more commercial activity into formal payment networks.
It could also generate valuable transaction data that helps businesses understand purchasing patterns and build stronger customer relationships.
AI Meets African Commerce
The addition of AI makes the model particularly interesting.
Conversational AI can potentially automate product recommendations, answer routine customer questions, manage orders and assist merchants in handling substantially more customers without proportionally increasing staff.
That could make sophisticated digital-commerce tools accessible to smaller businesses.
The larger competition is increasingly about controlling the customer journey.
Banks, fintech companies, payment networks, e-commerce platforms and messaging services all want to reduce friction between discovery and payment.
In Africa, where WhatsApp is already deeply embedded in everyday business communication, moving checkout directly into conversations could become an important next stage in the evolution of social commerce.
