Mastercard and Flowcart Bring Card Payments Into WhatsApp in Kenya

Mastercard is bringing card payments directly into WhatsApp conversations through a partnership with commerce platform Flowcart, starting in Kenya before expanding into other African markets. The arrangement allows consumers to discover products, place orders and pay without leaving the conversation. Merchants can use embedded links, QR codes or native checkout flows powered by Mastercard Gateway and its acquiring partners. Tokenised card details are also designed to support repeat purchases.

The service is aimed at a wide range of merchants, from individual social sellers and small businesses to larger brands, without requiring them to operate a website or physical point-of-sale system.

Flowcart uses AI to help merchants turn WhatsApp conversations into transactions, including generating carts from customer requests and automating the path from advertising to purchase. The Mastercard partnership adds card payments to that existing commerce workflow.

Mastercard and Meta Take Different Paths

The partnership also comes as Meta continues developing AI tools for businesses across its platforms.

iAfrica reported last week that Meta had expanded its AI tools for small businesses through connections with Facebook, Instagram, advertising campaigns and Google Workspace, but not WhatsApp Business. Meta has said 93% of Meta AI prompts in sub-Saharan Africa come through WhatsApp.

Mastercard is taking a different approach to the same channel by putting payment infrastructure directly into WhatsApp-based commerce.

Shehryar Ali, Mastercard's senior vice president and country manager for East Africa and Indian Ocean Islands, said the partnership is intended to meet consumers on platforms they already use.

“Social commerce is redefining how consumers discover and engage with brands,” he said. “Our collaboration with Flowcart enables us to embed secure, seamless payments directly into these experiences, unlocking new growth opportunities for merchants and expanding digital payment acceptance in one of Africa’s fastest-growing digital economies.”

Flowcart founder Ananth Gudipati said the service is designed for businesses ranging from independent social sellers and growing SMEs to large enterprises that use WhatsApp as a core commerce channel.

Targeting a Gap in Card Acceptance

The partnership addresses a specific challenge for small businesses selling through social and messaging platforms.

Mastercard's 2026 SME Confidence Index found that 80% of Kenyan SMEs consider simple and seamless payment methods a key requirement for future growth.

For merchants operating primarily through WhatsApp, accepting card payments has traditionally required infrastructure such as a website, payment gateway or physical terminal. Kenya's mobile money ecosystem, led by M-Pesa, has filled much of that gap.

Flowcart and Mastercard are adding card payments to that existing social-commerce model rather than requiring merchants to move customers to a separate digital storefront.

The commercial case will ultimately depend on the cost of the service, which has not been disclosed, as well as merchant adoption and the scale of the rollout.

Expanding Conversational Commerce

The partnership comes as payments and commerce platforms increasingly experiment with transactions inside messaging and AI interfaces.

Paystack's Index allows customers in Nigeria to make payments through AI platforms including Claude, ChatGPT and OpenClaw. Naspers has launched Zapia and ToqanClaw for South African users, while Bolt has integrated ride booking into ChatGPT.

Visa is developing Intelligent Commerce and an Agent Score for transactions initiated by AI agents, while Mastercard's Agent Pay is designed to provide payment capabilities for conversational AI platforms.

The Flowcart partnership is less about replacing traditional shopping with autonomous AI and more about removing a step from an existing consumer behaviour.

Customers already discover and buy products through WhatsApp. Mastercard and Flowcart are betting that allowing them to complete the payment in the same conversation can make that channel easier for merchants to monetise.