Peach Payments, a fintech startup from South Africa, has secured $31 million in Series A funding led by Apis Partners, with the aim of accelerating its expansion across the African continent and enhancing its range of products and services.
Apis Growth Fund II, a private equity fund managed by Apis Partners LLP announced its proposed investment of €29M in Peach Payments. Completion of the investment is subject to the approval of the Competition Commission of South Africa & customary closing conditions. pic.twitter.com/kFLSsQpfK2
— Peach Payments (@PeachPayments) April 4, 2023
Established in 2012 in Cape Town, South Africa, Peach Payments offers a comprehensive set of tools that enable enterprises to receive, organize, and distribute payments through web and mobile platforms.
More specifically, the fintech provides a toolkit that enables merchants to accept, manage, and make payments via mobile and the web. Services offered include online payment acceptance, pay-outs (disbursements), and subscription solutions across a variety of payment types including cards, electronic funds transfer, digital wallets, mobile money, and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) options, among others.
According to Apis Partners, the business has focused on its merchants’ customers as much as the merchants themselves. The company is said to be the second biggest online payment gateway in South Africa, and has since extended its operations to Kenya in 2018 and Mauritius in 2021.
“At Peach Payments, our mission is to enable African businesses and entrepreneurs to succeed in digital commerce. We want to be the infrastructure layer they build their business on. This was our original vision when we started, and is more relevant today than ever,” said Rahul Jain, Co-Founder and CEO of Peach Payments.
Peach has set its sights on further expansion buoyed by strong growth in recent years. The fintech startup’s revenue has surged by over 650% since 2020, and by 80% in 2022 alone.
“We’ve witnessed incredible growth in the past three years driven by fundamental forces and shifts in consumer and business adoption of digital commerce. Across market segments – from retail to digital learning, fitness, and even traditional financial services – we’ve on-boarded new clients in almost every vertical,” said Jain.
The fintech intends to quicken its expansion into untapped African markets, enhance its product portfolio, and strengthen its core merchant value proposition. Apis Partners, a private equity fund manager based out of the U.K., will be leveraging its expertise and networks in scaling the prominent payment firm and assisting Peach Payments in expanding its geographic footprint and accelerating its growth.
“We’ve built a very strong team with exceptional operators and I am excited to partner with the team at Apis and take this business to where it deserves to be. The Apis team brings an incredible wealth of experience in fintech across the globe and we look forward to exploring exponential opportunities together with them.”
Matteo Stefanel, the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Apis Partners, stated that his company recognizes a promising prospect in African payments due to the sustained and influential secular trends that transcend annual business cycles which includes the shift:
- From cash to digital payments, and
- From in-store to online payments
in key markets.
“We have been impressed by the vision and execution of the management team as Peach Payments capitalizes on these trends to bring more end-users into the digital economy, a key part of our drive to democratize access across the continent. We look forward to partnering with Peach Payments to expand its reach into new markets with innovative merchant solutions,” he said.
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