Cellulant appoints Xapo Bank exec as COO to scale pan-African operations

Cellulant, a pan-African payments firm, has appointed former Xapo Bank executive Anthony Hernandez as chief operating officer to strengthen operations as it scales across African markets. This follows recent hires of Michael Muriuki as chief product officer (February) and Darren Makarem as CFO (March), part of key restructuring following earlier leadership exits.

Hernandez will oversee onboarding, transaction processing, and customer growth, focusing on reducing failures and improving payment tracking across markets. He brings over 25 years of experience from GE Capital, Demica, and financial services. "In payments today, trust is the real currency, and operational excellence is what earns it," Cellulant CEO Peter O'Toole stated.

The company processes 4.5 million transactions daily across 20 African markets through a single integration, avoiding the need for separate connections per country. Having reached profitability in 2024, Cellulant competes with fintech rivals and banks building in-house payment systems, with recent hires indicating tightened execution as volume increases.

SOURCE: https://techcabal.com/2026/04/15/cellulant-hires-ex-xapo-bank-executive-anthony-hernandez-as-coo/