TPAY MOBILE appoints new CEO

Gaston Aussems was chief executive officer of European payments giant Mollie for more than seven years

TPAY MOBILE, the mobile payments provider serving the Middle East, Africa and Turkey, has appointed Gaston Aussems as its chief executive officer.

Founder and current chief executive officer Sahar Salama will move into a group chairwoman position, and will work closely alongside Aussems over the coming months to ensure a smooth leadership transition for the company.

Commenting on his appointment, Aussems said: “I’m incredibly excited to be taking the baton from Sahar at such an exciting time for TPAY MOBILE. The company’s mission of empowering underserved regions’ digital economies is something I wholeheartedly support, and I look forward to being part of the next stage of its journey.”

Aussems was chief executive officer of European payments giant Mollie for more than seven years, where his leadership proved crucial in the company achieving its unicorn valuation in 2020.

He has since spent two years as a venture partner, at firms including Atlantica and Antler, and a board member of impact investor Oikocredit, as well as various fintechs and telecommunications companies, including Yolt and Talk360.

Explaining the leadership changes at the mobile payments provider, Salama said: “All of us at TPAY MOBILE should be so proud of everything that we have achieved. We changed the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa for the better by delivering cross-border micropayments at scale, and significantly improving financial inclusion in the region.”

“While we were always ambitious in our vision of what TPAY MOBILE could become, we never imagined that our services would be so rapidly adopted by our partners and customers, and this makes me excited for what the future holds, especially as TPAY MOBILE expands its payment capabilities to new digital merchants and non-digital services.

Salama continued: “The time is now right for someone new to take TPAY MOBILE to the next level, and I trust that Gaston is that person. His experience of successfully scaling a complex, multi-country payments company, combined with his technical background, product-focused mentality, and global, entrepreneurial mindset, makes him the perfect person to execute TPAY MOBILE’s ambitious plans. I will be moving on to focus on a purely strategic and advisory role for the group in this exciting next growth phase for TPAY MOBILE.”

Babatunde Soyoye, current chairman at TPAY MOBILE, commented: “It has been a pleasure to partner with Sahar over the years and witness the passion, hard work and dedication that has helped grow TPAY MOBILE into the innovative company it is today. Sahar laid a great foundation in building a unique mobile payments network of merchants and Telcos across Middle East, Africa, and Turkey.”

“The next phase of growth is about building on this incredible platform to make TPAY MOBILE the market leading digital merchant acquirer and mobile payments enabler in its markets and we believe that Gaston will help us achieve this.”

Image: Canva

Mark Dugdale