Former Solaris execs to launch fintech start-up Zazu for African SMEs
Zazu will provide business banking services and financial management tools to African SMEs.
South Africa
The latest fintech news, resources and expert analysis in South Africa by the leading intelligence provider for the worldwide fintech community.
Standard Bank selects Volante Technologies’ PaaS for ISO 20022 compliance
The $166 billion-asset bank has adopted the vendor’s PaaS and embedded pre-processing solutions.
HSBC reportedly considering sale of its South African business
Bloomberg reports that banks from Africa, China, and the UAE are interested in HSBC South Africa.
TymeBank promotes former Retail Capital chief Karl Westvig to CEO
Westvig first joined TymeBank in 2023 through its acquisition of Retail Capital.
South Africa’s TymeBank plots $150m Series D round ahead of 2028 IPO
TymeBank expects to complete the round in Q4, with hopes of achieving unicorn status.
Bradwin Roper to step down as fintech CEO of MTN South Africa
Roper, who joined the company last year, is set to depart in October.
South African fintech Lesaka snaps up Adumo in $86m deal
The acquisition is expected to be finalised in the third quarter of 2024.
Old Mutual granted approval to establish bank in South Africa
Old Mutual intends to integrate the bank into South Africa’s National Payments System following a testing period.
Deel acquires Africa-based payroll company PaySpace
Deel says it has also surpassed $500 million in annual recurring revenue since its inception in 2019.
Exclusive: Old Mutual signs for 10x Banking core, igniting vendor’s African expansion
Old Mutual will leverage 10x’s core banking tech to “serve those who have bank accounts but are severely underserved”.
UK fintech Ebury acquires Prime Financial Markets to make African debut
The deal will see the London-based fintech open a local office in South Africa.
South African paytech Stanchion Payments names ex-Synthesis exec Pierre Aurel as new CPO
Aurel previously served as head of payments and cryptography at South Africa-based Synthesis Software Technologies.
Blackbullion taps Bud to streamline higher education student finance applications
Blackbullion will deploy Bud’s Assess solution and its open banking and transactional AI tech.
Stitch raises $25m in Ribbit Capital-led Series A extension
PayPal Ventures, CRE Venture Capital and The Raba Partnership also participated.
Digital banking group Tyme lands $77.8m in pre-Series C funding
Existing investor Tencent also increased its stake to become Tyme’s third-largest stakeholder.
South Africa’s Peach Payments lands $31m Series A funding
With the new investment, Peach Payments plans to expand across new markets in Africa.
South Africa rolls out PayShap, a new real-time digital payments service
With PayShap, consumers will have access to instant, real-time payments across participating banks.
Africa-focused escrow service Truzo launches in the UK
Truzo says it will close its next round of funding in Q2 2023.
Thought Machine plans to boost headcount by 20% in 2023
Thought Machine intends to hire across India, Japan and South Africa for the first time.
South Africa to pilot national rapid payments programme this year
The national payment system forms part of South Africa’s Vision 2025 programme.
South African digital lender Lulalend bags $35m Series B
Lulalend will look to increase its loan book size and develop new products.
Investec taps Surecomp for its digital trade finance tech
Surecomp’s tech will support Investec’s newly formed trade finance business.
Momentum Metropolitan taps Duco for no-code data automation solution
Momentum went live with Duco’s platform as part of a wider data automation strategy.
Barclays to sell remaining 7.4% stake in South Africa’s Absa
The offloading of 63,072,652 shares will raise approximately £538 million, Barclays says.
Passive micro-investing app upnup launches in South Africa
The company says micro-investing is a good first step into the space, providing “investment on auto-pilot”.
South Africa’s TymeBank to acquire SME funding fintech Retail Capital
Retail Capital will form the foundation of an expanded business banking offering within TymeBank.
Remittance start-up SendSprint launches in UK in partnership with Flutterwave
Flutterwave will provide the infrastructure to enable SendSprint to process cross-border transactions.
Capitec Bank taps nCino for business banking loan management upgrade
Capitec is South Africa’s largest digital bank, with more than 10 million customers.
Apollo Fintech taps ThetaRay for Sonar AML monitoring tech
Apollo Fintech will deploy Sonar on its new bank-to-bank payments service Knox Wire.
South African banking heavyweight Capitec appoints CTO, Andrew Baker
Andrew Baker had a lengthy tech career at Barclays Africa and its successor, Absa.
African fintech start-up Stitch lands $21m Series A round
Stitch will use the cash to expand its team, launch new products and enter new markets on the continent.
South African challenger bank Tyme completes $180m Series B with Tencent investment
The investment from Tencent and UK development finance institution CDC brought in an additional $70 million.
MTN hires Hermann Tischendorf as CTIO for digital and fintech
Tischendorf joins from 4Finance Group, where he served as CTO.
Shinhan Bank readies stablecoin remittance PoC on Hedera network
This is the latest in a number of distributed ledger innovations by the South Korean bank.
South African e-payments platform Ozow lands $48m in Series B funding
The paytech says cash will help deepen financial inclusion on the African continent.
Chipper Cash lands unicorn status with $150m Series C extension
The extension brings Chipper Cash’s total funding to date to over $305 million.
Standard Bank partners Flutterwave to boost digital financial services in Africa
Bank says the pandemic has caused a shift to digital payments across Africa.
South African fintech Yoco looks to scale following $83m Series C round
The firm is now targeting expansion across Africa and the Middle East.
Former Absa exec joins NAB as new chief security officer
Sandro Bucchianeri announced his departure from Absa at the start of the month.
ClearScore lands $200m investment from Invus
The UK fintech is looking to accelerate its global expansion.
