The round saw participation from Futuregrowth Asset Management, 4Di Capital, E4E Africa, Equitable Ventures, Summit Deals, the University Technology Fund and Felix Strategic Investments.

The Cape Town-based startup, with more than 600 000 registered users, is building what it calls an ad-subsidised payments network, a model that removes interest and fees from consumer finance entirely, shifting the cost of instalments to the merchants and brands that actually benefit from the resulting sales.

“Our mission is simple, to make cash-flow management free for consumers,” said Wesley Billett, co-founder and CEO of Happy Pay. “If we can connect the right product to the right person at the right moment and remove payment friction, commerce itself can fund the flexibility. That allows us to deliver installment payments without charging consumers interest.”

The model is a deliberate departure from traditional lending. Where most credit providers rely on interest, fees, or revolving balances, Happy Pay earns through merchant funding.

Retailers pay because flexible payments, paired with well-timed advertising, drive real commercial outcomes: higher conversion, bigger baskets, and access to new customers they wouldn’t otherwise reach.

An AI engine that connects discovery to purchase

Central to Happy Pay’s approach is an AI-driven advertising and distribution engine that matches merchants with high-intent shoppers in real time. The platform draws on behavioural signals, transaction data, affordability insights, and contextual cues to figure out what a user is most likely to buy, and when.

Those offers are then surfaced inside Happy Pay’s own app and pushed across partner apps, digital channels, and other touchpoints, moving consumers from discovery through to checkout with instalment payments already built in.

The key difference from standard digital advertising: Happy Pay optimises for completed purchases, not impressions or clicks.

Merchants pay only when a transaction happens. Consumers get interest-free flexibility at the exact moment they’re ready to buy.

The company describes this as a closed-loop model, one that pushes relevant products to users and drives them into both e-commerce checkouts and physical stores, turning marketing spend into trackable revenue rather than a bet on attention.

From BNPL product to commerce infrastructure

BNPL has taken off globally, but most providers still operate as standalone payment options bolted onto checkout. Happy Pay is going after something bigger: a commerce layer where advertising, payments, and financing work as a single, connected system.

Brands can promote specific products to targeted audiences. Merchants get incremental revenue. Consumers get flexible payments, all within one network. It’s as much an advertising marketplace as it is a financial product, sitting at the intersection of fintech, commerce, and adtech.

Built for markets where credit is expensive

In South Africa, consumer credit typically carries high interest rates and access to affordable lending remains patchy. Short-term instalment options have filled a gap as people look for predictable repayment structures that don’t saddle them with long-term debt.

“Our growth reflects a shift that’s been building for a while, toward financial tools that offer real flexibility without the trap of revolving balances. Traditional credit in South Africa is expensive, with the average credit-active consumer spending around 28% of their net income on debt repayments,” said Billett.

“We believe our model changes that equation by creating value for every participant. Merchants grow sales and acquire new customers, consumers gain access to cost-free cash-flow flexibility, and we build a business designed to deliver positive, long-term impact.”

“We’ve looked at most BNPL companies across Africa, Europe and the US, and we’re clear that the best model for creating true value is the one Happy Pay has built. BNPL only makes sense when it delivers real affordability for consumers while helping merchants improve conversion, grow their client base, build loyalty, and reduce acquisition costs.” said Matthieu Marchand, Principal at Partech

Funding to accelerate scale

The fresh capital will go toward expanding merchant partnerships, growing distribution across digital and physical channels, and continuing to develop the AI-driven recommendations and ads engine.

A bet that the future of consumer finance isn’t interest

“Finance has previously been monetised through the consumer,” concludes Billett. “We’re proving it can be monetised through value creation instead. When merchants grow, consumers shouldn’t have to go into debt to make that happen.”

The company’s strong presence at the event reinforced its position as the critical payment infrastructure that empowers individuals, businesses, and governments to do more, while championing conversations that shape Africa’s digital future.

As part of the week-long engagements, a panel session focused on “The Future of Platforms and Partnerships in Africa’s Digital Economy” featured Mujib Ishola, chief technology officer at Remita, who shared forward-looking insights on how innovation and collaboration are shaping the continent’s digital evolution.

His participation underscored Remita’s commitment to driving conversations on technology adoption, data intelligence, and collaborative innovation within and beyond the payments ecosystem.

The session, moderated by Lanre Basamta, CEO and co-founder of Optimus AI Labs, and featuring Yejide Runsewe, CEO of NaijaNomads, was held on Day 2 of the conference, Wednesday, October 8, at the Landmark Centre, Lagos.

The conversation explored how technology, fintech collaboration, and intelligent data use are redefining Africa’s travel, payments, and hospitality sectors.

Speaking during the session, Mujib Ishola underscored that technology has become an intrinsic part of modern business and no longer a competitive advantage.

“Technology is no longer what gives you an edge; it is what keeps you in the game. If you’re not embedding technology into your business model, you’ll struggle to compete.”

Ishola highlighted how artificial intelligence and data tokenisation are transforming financial systems, accelerating efficiency, and enabling more personalised customer experiences.

“AI gives us the ability to reduce time to truth. For businesses, that efficiency – getting to the truth faster – is everything,” he said.

According to him, data remains the fuel that will drive the growth of industries, particularly travel and hospitality.

He noted that tokenised data allows users to securely share relevant information across systems, improving insurance claims, customer service, and user convenience.

“You don’t realise how powerful data is until things go wrong, like missing a flight or a booking cancellation. When data is structured and tokenised, systems can act intelligently and responsively.”

On the evolution of cross-border payments in Africa, Ishola pointed to the growing impact of the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), which allows businesses and individuals to transact across African markets without sourcing foreign exchange.

“You can now pay with naira for services in another African country, and settlement happens seamlessly.  That’s a practical example of technology breaking barriers,” he explained.

Addressing affordability and inclusion in payments, Ishola discussed the role of flexible credit solutions such as Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) schemes, targeted microloans, and credit cards in democratizing access to experiences.

He called for broader education around alternative methods of proving creditworthiness.

“The challenge isn’t always access to credit, it’s how we demonstrate our ability to repay. With smarter data systems, young Nigerians can prove creditworthiness beyond traditional banking history,” he observed.

Turning to the panel’s theme of partnerships, Ishola called for “open, honest collaboration” across the fintech and travel ecosystem.

He noted that while the fintech industry once operated on protectionist instincts, the future lies in co-creation and shared infrastructure.

“Technology is everywhere now. The question isn’t who owns it, but who can execute and scale sustainably. We need to co-create Africa-specific platforms that make sense for our realities, not just copy models that work elsewhere.”

His remarks drew attention to Remita’s role in enabling interoperable financial ecosystems and powering collaboration across private, public, and continental boundaries.

Through solutions that integrate payments, collections, data analytics, and financial intelligence, Remita continues to serve as a unifying infrastructure for digital growth.

Beyond its thought leadership role, Remita also featured as a headline sponsor at the event, reaffirming its position as one of Nigeria’s most influential fintech brands.

The company’s presence at the conference underscored its vision to serve as the payment operating system that powers individuals, businesses, and governments to do more.

Unlike traditional recovery methods, Zeeh’s innovative system offers a direct and automated approach to fund recollection, providing a seamless solution for lenders grappling with recovery challenges.

The GSI technology will address the challenge of loan repayment for lenders in Nigeria and beyond and will serve as a robust last-resort system, enabling connected lenders to directly debit accounts of loan defaulters in other banks.

Speaking on the solution, David Adeleke, co-founder/CEO at Zeeh Africa stresses that the GSI-powered solution introduces a cutting-edge system that merges the efficiency of Direct Debit with GSI functionality, offering an advanced tool beyond conventional recovery approaches.

This combined system simplifies the process and proves effective in reducing non-performing loan rates. Borrowers initiate the process by granting consent through their Bank Verification Number (BVN) and linking all associated accounts, ensuring comprehensive access to relevant information for more effective recovery.

“Zeeh Africa’s Direct Debit feature enables borrowers to designate their primary account for debits. However, in cases of failed debits, the system seamlessly transitions to the GSI feature, acting as a fail-safe mechanism when Direct Debit encounters obstacles such as no debit or partial debit”, he noted.

Notable features of Zeeh Africa’s GSI solution include:

• Comprehensive Control: Zeeh Africa’s Direct Debit (GSI) system provides businesses with control features, allowing them to initiate, pause, or halt ongoing debits as necessary.
• Transparent Transactions: It allows users to gain insights into direct debits, transaction details, and manual payments effortlessly through dedicated endpoints, ensuring transparency throughout.
• Flexible Scheduling: Users can schedule, delete, or simulate payments according to business requirements with Zeeh Africa’s versatile API endpoints.
• Automation for Enhanced Efficiency and Accuracy: The integration of GSI and Direct Debit introduces automation into the recovery process, expediting fund recollection and minimizing the potential for human error. This ensures precision and reliability in every transaction.
• Effortless User Engagement: Users can utilize Zeeh Africa’s endpoints to resend consent and mandate links, ensuring seamless user engagement throughout the process.

Zeeh Africa’s integration of Global Standing Instruction and Direct Debit marks a significant advancement in loan recovery within the financial sector.

This combined system, emphasizing borrower consent, linked accounts, and automated recovery, presents a pioneering solution for lenders and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services, shaping the future of loan recovery for digital lenders worldwide.

In addition to its use case for loan recovery, Zeeh Africa’s GSI technology can also be used for the collection of recurring payments, a key feature in the company’s Open banking capabilities.

That doesn’t just make it difficult for them to save effectively, but also to access formal lines of credit.

The thing is, when most people talk about financial exclusion and the proposed solutions to it, they tend to focus on the “big” economic movers that come with financial inclusion.

A lot of attention, for example, is given to affordable home and vehicle financing and business and education loans. That’s understandable too: those are all vital tools in helping people advance economically.

But financial inclusion can’t be limited to those big-ticket items. It must also cover many of the day-to-day purchases that people in other markets take for granted.

We cannot, after all, talk about real financial inclusion if someone can access a business loan but still has to approach informal lenders to pay for their child’s school uniforms and stationery.

It’s why the rise of “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) services in Africa is so important. These services allow people to purchase items and choose to pay for them over a specified period, typically in instalments with low interest rates.

Unlike lay-by offerings, people are allowed to take possession of their goods immediately. While these offerings are most visible online, they’re increasingly common in physical retail spaces too.

A personal journey

There are any number of examples of how BNPL can empower ordinary Africans by enhancing their purchasing power.

Maybe it’s someone needing to buy a new suit for a job interview, a promising athlete needing a new pair of running spikes as they look to secure a university scholarship, or someone needing to buy a laptop to start their side hustle.

Sometimes (as I discovered myself, when I returned to Kenya in 2017 after studying in the USA), it’s just about staying connected.

As I trawled the malls of Nairobi looking to buy a phone (something few of us can live without), I realised that very few stores had the option to pay off a device in instalments. It came as a stark contrast to the US, where instalment plans are available almost everywhere.

But it was also a lightbulb moment that inspired the founding of Lipa Later. I realised how effective BNPL could be in the Kenyan and broader African contexts, particularly if it was adapted to the way Africans shop.

That vision was further crystallised in the early days of the business when my co-founder Michael Maina spent hours walking around malls, speaking to shoppers.

Many, he found out, wanted a specific phone that was just out of reach but which they could easily pay off over a few months.

BNPL for predominantly offline markets

While many of us are familiar with BNPL in e-commerce contexts, we knew that launching an e-commerce-only BNPL product would have limited efficacy in an African context.

Even in a country as renowned for embracing technology as Kenya, online made up just 4% of all retail sales in 2021 (the most recent year for which I could find figures).

But getting physical retailers on board with the concept wasn’t always easy. In the early days especially, there were a lot more noes than yeses.

Nonetheless, we persisted because we knew that, implemented correctly, the BNPL solution we were building could be a “lifeline for a lifetime” for both our retailer and consumer customers.

As a result, today, we have a BNPL offering that works as effectively in offline physical retail settings as it does online.

And because we’ve taken an attitude that everything about Lipa Later, from the name (Lipa is Swahili for “pay”) to the technology, should be tailored for Africa, we’ve been able to expand beyond Kenya into Uganda and Rwanda.

We also welcome the growing competition in the African BNPL space, not only because it’s pushed us to keep improving our own offering (a partnership with Mastercard means that we’ll soon be rolling out the first buy now, pay later card in Africa, for example) but also because it’ll help advance financial inclusion across Africa.

An increasingly important financial inclusion tool

While BNPL can’t eliminate debt entirely, it can make a dent in it, and with nearly 60% of Kenyans living in debt and similarly high numbers across many countries on the continent, its role will only become increasingly important.

Without having to resort to expensive informal lenders, customers can save more of their money or use it on things that improve their lives, rather than simply servicing debt.

As operators become mature and innovative (rewarding the best-paying customers with even lower interest rates, for example), its value will keep growing.

But consumers aren’t the only ones who benefit from this expanded financial inclusion. Retailers also benefit from increased customer bases. Those increased sales, in turn, can lead to expansion and even contribute to national economic growth.

So, as important as more traditional forms of financial inclusion are, it’s important to remember that consumer spending power is a critical component of financial inclusion, too.

Tailored effectively to African realities, there are few more powerful instruments for improving that spending power than BNPL.