The deal, whose financial details remain undisclosed, allows Stitch to merge online and in-person payments into a unified platform, enabling businesses to simplify payment operations across multiple channels.

This acquisition enables Stitch to address the gap between online and offline payment systems in South Africa’s retail market. The ExiPay platform, now rebranded as “Stitch In-person Payments,” offers enterprises an advanced solution to efficiently manage transactions at the point of sale (POS). 

The system is designed to be compatible with existing devices and acquiring banks, allowing businesses to integrate it seamlessly into their operations.

Stitch’s in-person payment solution attends to enterprise-scale operations, providing an API that integrates smoothly with existing systems while reducing administrative burdens. 

The platform supports terminal certifications, including Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE), and allows businesses to manage terminals across multiple locations. 

It also provides flexibility at the POS by enabling payments through traditional card methods or alternative options, which can be combined with online payment systems for a unified commerce experience.

Added to this, businesses can choose between customising the solution through Stitch’s API or using the comprehensive Terminal Management Dashboard. This dashboard provides detailed insights into store and device performance, empowering businesses to make data-driven decisions and optimise payment processes. 

The platform supports omnichannel retail, offering customers a seamless checkout experience whether shopping in-store, online, or via mobile.

Security remains a top priority for Stitch. The platform is ISO 27001 and PCI DSS Level 1 certified, adhering to data protection standards to safeguard client and payment information. Direct integrations with multiple banks and networks ensure high reliability, faster issue resolution, and automatic payment rerouting to maximise transaction success rates.

ExiPay, founded in 2022 by Derek Keats and Willem Büchner, developed POS terminals that processed R2 million ($106,000) in daily transactions by 2023. The startup received €5.4 million ($5.6 million) in funding from Izwe Africa, a fintech group supporting small businesses in Ghana, Kenya, and Zambia. The acquisition brings ExiPay’s six-person team under Stitch’s operations.

Explaining the decision, Stitch CEO Kiaan Pillay stated, “The in-person payments space has not been disrupted for enterprises. Many players are doing this for smaller businesses in the market, but no one is tackling this for enterprises; it was the big reason we wanted to do this.”

With the acquisition of ExiPay instead of partnering with larger providers, Stitch retains full control over its technology stack. Pillay noted that building a similar solution internally would have delayed their plans by 18 to 24 months, making the acquisition a more practical choice.

Stitch’s integrated payment solutions are already trusted by enterprises such as MTN, MultiChoice, Cell C, and Bash. The company’s move into in-person payments is expected to make a significant impact on Africa’s payment space, enhancing convenience, reliability, and efficiency for large-scale businesses.

Founded in 2019, Stitch has raised $52 million in funding and operates in South Africa and Nigeria, with expansion plans targeting Kenya, Ghana, and Egypt.

“This deal is attractive for both ExiPay and Stitch investors. We are sitting under one roof,” Pillay added.

With a 24/7 support team and solid features such as automatic payment rerouting and detailed analytics, Stitch aims to transform the payment sector by simplifying transactions and reducing administrative burdens for enterprises, enhancing commerce for businesses across Africa.

The round was led by Raba Partnership and included participation from investors such as Rallycap, BYLD, Timon Capital, Musha Ventures, Sunu, Uncovered Fund, Chipper Cash and Stitch.

Thepeer is tackling the challenge which exists among fintechs who provide digital wallets to their customers “but do not have a direct way to use that store of value across different apps and merchants.”

To solve this problem, Thepeer offers three products that can be integrated into the applications or websites of fintech companies and businesses, to be leveraged by their customers. These products include Direct Charge, where these customers can fund their wallets from other businesses; Send — allows the customers to send money instantly; and Checkout — customers pay for items online from any store accepting payment via Thepeer.

The startup has been able to gain the trust of partners such as GetEquity, Nguvuhealth, Bitsika, Chipper Cash, Eversend, Paga and many others. Thepeer fixes its eyes on more integrations with thriving businesses in coming weeks.

Thepeer affirms to have recorded average month-on-month transaction growth of 161% since inception. Following the launch of its Send product, where users can send and receive money and is introducing transactions in other currencies aside from the Nigerian naira, the startup’s monthly transaction volume has grown over 65x and is processing millions of dollars in double digits.

Kosisochukwu Chike Ononye and Micheal Trojan Okoh founded the company due to personal encounters with finding direct ways to transfer value between customers of different walletable businesses and not getting it. Today, the idea of solving this problem has birthed another thriving African fintech company. 

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.