TurnStay, a South African travel-focused fintech, has secured $300,000 (over R5.4 million) funding from Silicon Valley and New York-based investors, DFS Lab and Digital Currency Group.
The company plans to use the funding to expand the business into Africa and build on the significant traction already achieved.
Founded by experienced entrepreneurs, Alon Stern, Co-Founder of Slide Financial, and James Hedley, Co-Founder, Quicket, TurnStay radically reduces the cost of getting paid for African merchants and platforms in travel and tourism by harnessing the same ‘tricks’ used by the world’s biggest booking companies.
“Securing funding from these U.S. investors is a vote of confidence in our business model, which has already processed more than R50 million in transactions [~$2.7 million],” said TurnStay CEO, Alon Stern.
“TurnStay creates a localised payment experience, charging clients in their home currency using familiar payment methods when booking accommodation. TurnStay’s solution has reduced costs for some clients by 70% and halved the number of unnecessary failed transactions. With a better checkout experience, sales conversion rates soar.”
Getting paid can be expensive in the travel industry as payment fees and fees levied by online travel agencies are added.
“The average merchant spends 12% of revenue on getting paid – often, this can be the difference between making a profit or a loss and dramatically affects the viability of many businesses in a sector that employs over six million people in Africa,” says James Hedley, TurnStay Co-Founder.
By leveraging a worldwide network of compliant companies, TurnStay significantly lowers international payment costs for hotels while maintaining safety and efficiency. It addresses the issue of African hotels facing up to 20 times higher fees compared to online travel agencies like Booking.com.
The benefits for merchants include:
- Reduced card fees
- An enhanced checkout experience, and
- Increased direct bookings
enabling properties to compete more effectively with online travel agencies through improved conversion rates.
TurnStay’s payment solution is seamlessly integrated with leading booking engine providers such as Benson Software.
Stephen Deng, General Partner at DFS Lab explains:
“TurnStay is building a much-needed offering for the African travel and tourism industry, one that unlocks substantial cost savings for hospitality businesses across the continent. We believe the founders are the perfect team to tackle this opportunity, combining deep industry experience with a proven history of shipping market-leading products.”
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