SA-based Stitch Raises $21m in Series A funding to Bridge Financial Gaps for Businesses

Following the $4,000,000 raised by Stitch in February 2021, a prequel to the $2,000,000 extension round secured four months ago, the fintech startup has now raised $21,000,000 in Series A funding.

The new capital, which brings the total fund raised by Stitch to $27,000,000 to date, will be used by the company to create a financial graph ecosystem across Africa.

The financial graph is an infrastructure for financial building blocks that allow businesses to write code once, launch in multiple markets and scale faster based on interoperability across regions, providers, banks, and other types of financial accounts.

The graph utilises three stages — the pure infrastructural play of connecting financial and bank accounts with an API, the acquisition of merchants and businesses to build use cases and applications on top of that infrastructure and lastly, getting end consumers to link their accounts via these businesses.

The round was led by investment firm, The Spruce House Partnership. New and existing investors who also took part in the round include PayPal Ventures, TrueLayer, firstminute capital, The Raba Partnership, CRE Venture Capital, Village Global, as well as fintech founders and companies such as TrueLayer, founders of Chipper Cash, Quovo and Unit, and Guillaume Pousaz’s Zinal Growth.

Stitch provides solutions for e-commerce companies, marketplaces and fintech, with services necessary for driving financial inclusion and ease of payments across the continent.

Wallet-based companies such as Chipper Cash and Luno; embedded finance providers like ImaliPay; subscription platforms like FlexClub; and payment aggregators like Yoco are some of Stitch’s customers who leverage its services for use cases such as KYC & onboarding, personal and business financial management, lending, wallet top-ups and e-commerce checkouts. 

The platform’s data and identity products allow businesses to access customer transaction histories and balance data, verify account information, and perform fraud checks. The payments product enables bank-to-bank transfers for one-click pay-ins and payouts.

Expanding its reach outside South Africa and Nigeria, Stitch sets to step foot into Kenya, Ghana and Egypt soon.