Lagos, Nigeria, January 14th, 2026, FinanceWire
Cardtonic has announced their intentions to launch Pil, a new B2B payment platform designed to support how businesses manage and control online spending. Built for companies handling high transaction volumes and running advertising across platforms such as Meta, TikTok, and Google, Pil provides tools intended to improve structure, visibility, and reliability in business payments.
Pil by Cardtonic is designed for businesses that require more than a single payment card to manage operations. The platform allows companies to create multiple virtual dollar cards, label them by purpose, and assign them to different teams. This structure is intended to simplify expense tracking, reduce confusion, and support growing operations.
One area Pil focuses on is funding flexibility. The platform is built to allow businesses globally to fund accounts using stablecoins. Businesses in Nigeria and Ghana can also fund Pil accounts using Naira and Cedis, respectively.
At its core, Pil is focused on control and clarity. The platform is intended to give businesses a clearer view of spending activity and support more organised payment management.
Background and Rationale for Pil
Cardtonic has historically supported individual users through virtual dollar cards, online bill payments, and gift card trading. These tools were designed for personal use and smaller transactions and have been widely adopted for everyday payments.
As Cardtonic expanded, its own operational payment needs increased. Managing advertising spend, subscriptions, software tools, and larger recurring transactions highlighted limitations in systems designed primarily for individual use. While the Cardtonic app handled personal payments effectively, it was not structured for business scale.
According to Cardtonic CEO Emmanuel Sohe, existing solutions often introduced uncertainty. “Funding bank cards was stressful, limits were unpredictable, and payments failed at critical moments. We tried multiple platforms over the years, but none truly worked for businesses spending at scale,” he said during an internal team meeting.
Business payments often involve higher volumes, recurring charges, and multiple teams spending simultaneously. Over time, it became clear that these needs could not be addressed by incremental changes to existing tools.
Pil was developed to address those specific requirements. It operates as a separate platform from Cardtonic, built specifically to support structured business spending, with greater visibility and control over online payments.
The Funding Behind Pil
Cardtonic raised $2.1 million to support the development of Pil. The funding reflects a focus on building the platform with an emphasis on reliability and long-term infrastructure rather than rapid deployment.
The raise includes backing from investors familiar with Cardtonic’s operational history and its experience navigating payment challenges. The funding is intended to support compliance, system stability, and scalability.
Cardtonic’s co-founder Faturoti Kayode, noted that discipline has been central to the company’s approach. “We bootstrapped Cardtonic for years because discipline mattered to us,” he said, highlighting a preference for stability over accelerated expansion.
The funding represents investor confidence in the team’s ability to develop dependable financial systems suited for business use.
Intended Business Use Cases
Pil is designed for businesses that rely on uninterrupted payments, particularly those running advertising campaigns on platforms such as Meta, Google, and TikTok. Payment failures can interrupt campaigns and operations, and Pil is structured to reduce such disruptions.
The platform also supports marketing agencies and teams managing multiple accounts, subscriptions, and tools. By assigning cards by function or team, businesses can better organise spending and track expenses with greater accuracy.
Speaking on the motivation behind Pil, Emmanuel Sohe stated that the product was informed by Cardtonic’s internal experience. “As a company, we spend tens of thousands of dollars every month on ads, tools, and subscriptions, and we felt the pain ourselves,” he said. According to him, Pil was created to reduce uncertainty in recurring business payments.
Pil is positioned as a platform for operators and finance teams seeking a more structured approach to managing business payments.
The Expectation for Pil
Pil reflects Cardtonic’s effort to address the practical challenges businesses face when managing online payments at scale. By focusing on clear spend reporting, control and funding flexibility, the platform intends to make business spend management straightforward.
About Cardtonic
Cardtonic is a fast-growing fintech super-app enabling payments beyond borders through alternative channels such as virtual dollar cards and digital assets. The platform serves more than 1.5 million users, providing frictionless access to global payments, secure gift card exchange, international bills, and digital connectivity via eSIMs.
With a strong culture of discipline, speed, and customer trust, Cardtonic gives Africans the freedom to transact globally without relying solely on limited traditional banking rails.