UK consultancy Consult Hyperion has launched a mobile money practice to concentrate on payments in the developing world and brought in Susie Lonie (pictured), an important figure in the creation of M-Pesa, to collaborate with practice head Paul Makin, who already works at the consultancy.

Consult Hyperion, which has a lot of experience in European and North American payment markets, has found an increasing amount of work in recent years in developing markets which have limited conventional banking infrastructure but growing mobile penetration.

Given the opportunity, the consultancy decided to set up the new practice and bring in Lonie on a more official basis as an associate principal consultant.

Lonie, along with colleague Nick Hughes at Vodafone, is well-known in mobile money circles for developing M-Pesa.