Job Title: CFO
Company: Cellulant
Darren Makarem is the chief financial officer of Cellulant.
He began his career in finance at Ernst & Young (EY), before moving into commercial and operational roles across fintech, online travel, SaaS and digital marketplaces.
At Agoda, the global online travel business, Makarem rose from VP commercial finance to CFO, leading a 160-person global team and overseeing a payments network that handled over $12 billion in annual transaction volume. He subsequently served as CFO for the Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions at Binance, directing the financial integration of newly acquired exchanges in South Korea and Japan. Most recently, he served as chief executive officer of OnRamp, a Bangkok-based fintech operating across payment orchestration, neo-banking and B2B marketplaces.
Makarem holds an MBA in finance from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and a BA Hons in French and management.
Work
Feb 2026 – present: chief financial officer, Cellulant
Aug 2023 – Oct 2025: chief executive officer, OnRamp
Jul 2022 – Jun 2023: CFO APAC, Binance
Dec 2020 – Jun 2022: chief financial officer, Agoda
Aug 2017 – Dec 2020: VP commercial finance, Agoda
May 2014 – Jul 2017: COO/CFO, Findmypast
Jan 2009 – Feb 2013: commercial finance director, Volex
Education
2002 – 2004: MBA, strategy, marketing, finance and international business, Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management
1991 – 1995: BA Hons, French and management
Cellulant
Cellulant is a pan-African payments company processing over 4.5 million transactions daily across more than 20 markets. The company achieved profitability in 2024 and is positioning itself to capture a growing share of Africa's digital payments landscape.
