Digital payments platform secures a peach of a deal
SA digital payments platform Peach Payments has secured more than R564m in new funding from UK-based asset manager Apis Partners, adding to the list of fast growing fintech companies that continue to drive investment interest and dollars to the country’s shores.
The largest capital raises in recent times for local start-ups have been $120m (about R2.14bn) for Jumo, led by Fidelity Management & Research at a $400m valuation; $48m for Ozow, led by China’s Tencent; and $83m for Yoco. All three are fintech firms.
Insurance technology platform Naked recently raised $17m in a third round of funding.
Apis Growth Fund II, a private equity fund managed by Apis Partners on Tuesday announced a proposed investment of €29m (R564.08m) in Baobab Payments, which trades as Peach Payments.
Peach the second-largest online payment gateway in SA was founded by Rahul Jain and Andreas Demleitner in 2012 in Cape Town. It expanded to Kenya in 2018, and to Mauritius in 2021.
The payments start-up, which has about 150 staff, enables small and large merchants to accept, manage and make e-commerce and digital payments via mobile devices and the web. Services include online payment acceptance, payouts (disbursements), and subscription through various payment types such as cards, electronic funds transfers, digital wallets, mobile money, and buy now pay later options.
The deal is subject to approval from SA’s Competition Commission and a number of customary procedural and closing conditions.
“We’ve witnessed incredible growth in the past three years driven by fundamental forces and shifts in consumer and business adoption of digital commerce,” said Jain, who serves as CEO of Peach.
The company’s revenue has jumped more than sevenfold since 2020, and by 80% in 2022, It intends to use the new funds to “accelerate its expansion across new African markets, to deepen its product offering, and to reinforce its core merchant value proposition”,
Jain said “across market segments from retail to digital learning, fitness, and even traditional financial services we’ve onboarded new clients in almost every vertical.
“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.”
Apis specialises in backing growing financial services and financial infrastructure businesses by providing equity capital. Through its various units, the firm has more than $1.2bn under management.
Peach’s investors include UW Ventures, Launch Africa, and AG Ventures.
WE’VE BUILT A VERY STRONG TEAM WITH EXCEPTIONAL OPERATORS AND I AM EXCITED TO PARTNER WITH THE TEAM AT APIS