Cellulant appoints Anthony Hernandez as COO to drive AI-powered operations, customer experience

Cellulant has appointed Anthony Hernandez as Chief Operating Officer (COO) to lead its customer operations strategy and strengthen execution across the business as it deepens its footprint in Africa’s payments sector.

The appointment will see Hernandez oversee end-to-end customer experience, from onboarding and transactions to growth, while advancing operational automation and data-driven processes across the organisation.

Cellulant provides payment solutions to enterprises and global businesses operating across Africa through a single API that connects multiple markets and hundreds of payment methods. As the company scales, it is prioritising a stronger operational backbone to deliver consistent, reliable and transparent payment services to customers across the continent.

Commenting on the appointment, Chief Executive Officer of Cellulant, Peter O’Toole, said, “In payments today, trust is the real currency, and operational excellence is what earns it. As we continue to grow our volumes and support market-leading businesses across Africa and beyond, we are deliberately strengthening our operational foundations. Anthony’s role is to ensure we embed that operational discipline with intention, delivering consistent, high-quality experiences as we deepen our presence across markets and support our customers’ growth.”

Hernandez brings more than 25 years of global leadership experience across financial services, fintech and industrial sectors, with a strong track record in building and scaling operating models in complex, regulated and fast-growing environments.

He has held senior leadership roles at GE Capital, Xapo Bank and Demica, now part of FIS, where he led large-scale digital transformation initiatives, secured regulatory approvals and built global operating teams managing assets worth tens of billions of dollars.

Under his leadership, Cellulant plans to advance an automated, data-led operational framework designed to meet rising customer expectations around real-time visibility into fund status and settlements, alongside enhanced transaction monitoring to support compliance across its markets. The company also aims to leverage platform data to provide deeper insights that help customers optimise performance, manage risk and drive growth, while strengthening governance standards across regulated environments.

“Payment flexibility starts with access to the right options and is grown by how reliably those options work in practice,” said Anthony, COO at Cellulant. “Cellulant has built a powerful payment infrastructure for businesses operating across Africa, and I’m excited to join a team that is at the very heart of Africa’s digital economy. Our focus is now building the operational discipline and systems that ensure customers experience simple, reliable and frictionless payment experiences every time, while giving them the visibility and insight to grow their businesses.”