Stitch, a leading payment solutions provider in South Africa, has announced a significant milestone in its growth trajectory with the successful closure of a $25 million Series A Extension round, led by Ribbit Capital and Existing backers, including CRE Ventures, PayPal Ventures, and the Raba Partnership, also participated in the round.. This funding round underscores Stitch’s position as an emerging leader in the payments industry, and will be used to accelerate the company’s expansion into new markets and product development.
In just two years since the launch of its inaugural payments product, Stitch has processed over 50 million payments annually, amounting to more than $2 billion in value. The company’s rapid growth has been driven by its focus on providing end-to-end payment solutions to businesses of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises.
The Cape Town-based fintech enables businesses to build, optimize, and scale financial products, through its platform which offers a variety of payment solutions, including pay-in via bank, debit and credit card, recurring debits, cash, and manual bank transfer; payment orchestration and reconciliation across multiple methods, providers, and geographies in one dashboard with PayOS; and payouts.
The company’s customers include enterprise businesses in South Africa, such as MTN, Multichoice, the Foschini Group (TFG), Standard Bank’s SnapScan, and Yoco. Stitch also has a handful of startups and small businesses as customers in Nigeria and other African countries where it has licenses to operate.
Stitch’s CEO, Kiaan Pillay, said that the company’s focus on building a full-service payment platform has been well-received by its customers.
“We moved away from being a single method platform to a next-generation PSP for local and global enterprises,” said Pillay. “Our solution is attractive for global companies trying to enter the market for the first time because of the end-to-end process.”
Pillay also noted that Stitch’s direct connections with banks and networks and its focus on reliability and uptime have been key to its success.
“We’re sort of playing in a space that we wouldn’t have expected to, but because big merchants have demanded us to have more products, it’s been an easier place to get into and scale from there,” said Pillay.
Stitch plans to use the proceeds from its Series A extension round to continue developing its platform, expanding its customer base, and seizing opportunities to serve new markets.
“Everything we do is client-focused,” said Pillay. “We’ll continue to optimize for what they have. And then scale geographically with them and deeper in products they already have.”
Stitch’s success is a testament to the growing demand for robust and reliable payment solutions in Africa. The company is well-positioned to capitalize on this growth opportunity and become a leading payment provider on the continent. Stitch’s new brand identity reflects its transition from an early-stage startup to a mature, growth-stage enterprise. The new brand is more sophisticated and professional, and better reflects Stitch’s commitment to providing best-in-class payment solutions to its customers.
WigWag, a Stitch’s subsidiary enables small businesses and micro-influencers who sell goods and services on social media platforms to accept payment via a link and card. Stitch has raised $52 million in venture capital to date and has over 80 employees.
