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Chpter, the Kenyan software startup building infrastructure for social commerce, has expanded into 11 more African countries through a deal with fintech company Flutterwave. The new markets are Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Egypt, Burkina Faso, Malawi and Zambia, expanding its presence in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.
The deal allows Chpter customers to accept payments using mobile money, cards and bank transfers. Merchants in the new countries can collect payments in local currencies or USD. Flutterwave will process and settle the transactions in the background.
The partnership also signals Chpter’s shift to an AI-first product approach, considering the company has introduced sales and customer service AI agents and restructured its team to support that direction. It’s also testing the idea that Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) can work at scale in Africa if pricing and product design match local conditions. Chpter also recently launched Pluto, its WhatsApp API suite aimed at helping developers and businesses build full customer journeys on WhatsApp.
“To give you a sense of the momentum, it took us 14 months to acquire our first 1,000 merchants. This year alone, we’ve acquired 1,500 more in under 4 months,” Tesh Mbaabu, co-founder and president at Chpter told TechCabal. He declined to share the company’s current customer count.
About 45% of Chpter’s customer interactions are handled by AI, Mbaabu added. “We see a future where over 80% of engagements will be handled by AI as our capabilities improve and trust increases.”
Chpter provides businesses with tools to sell directly through chat apps like WhatsApp and Instagram. It lets merchants manage orders, accept payments, automate messages and run marketing campaigns from one dashboard. Chpter is also a Meta Business Partner, which grants it access to features such as product catalogues for in-chat checkout, marketing campaign tools, and a dashboard that consolidates conversations from different platforms.
WhatsApp and Instagram now account for up to 60% of inbound traffic for the businesses using Chpter, CEO Mark Kiarie said. “We have been onboarding dozens of new businesses every week, and many of these businesses are coming from markets such as Senegal and Tanzania, despite us not having done any direct outreach there yet. This partnership means these businesses can now go live on Chpter and start accepting payments directly via WhatsApp and Instagram.”
Chpter raised $1.2 million in pre-seed funding in September 2024. The round was led by Pani, the investment firm co-founded by former Cellulant CEO Ken Njoroge. Other backers include Techstars, Norrsken, Renew Capital and several angel investors. Chpter has also participated in accelerator programmes run by Norrsken and Safaricom.
The company operates on a subscription model, with fees ranging from $50 to $550 per month, depending on business size. It also earns revenue from paid messaging and AI-based customer interactions on Meta platforms.
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