littlefish raised $9.5 million in a Series A round to expand its merchant operating system across African markets. The round was led by Partech, with participation from TLcom Capital, Flourish Ventures and Proparco.
Founded in 2021 by Brandon Roberts and Miod Davith Kahwa, the company provides a platform that connects banks with merchants by integrating payments, point-of-sale systems, customer management tools and APIs into a single infrastructure layer.
The platform is already used by major financial institutions including Standard Bank, First National Bank and Absa Group, and is embedded into onboarding processes through a partnership with Visa.
The company plans to use the funding to expand into more than 10 African markets, including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, while scaling product development and growing its team.
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Key Takeaways
Littlefish’s model reflects a shift in African fintech from direct-to-merchant solutions toward infrastructure that enables banks to compete with fintech platforms. Instead of bypassing financial institutions, the company provides technology that allows banks to offer digital merchant services, including payments, customer management and analytics, within their existing systems. This approach leverages the distribution and trust that banks already have with small and medium-sized businesses. By embedding its platform into point-of-sale devices and core banking systems, littlefish becomes part of the operational backbone for merchant services. This creates high switching costs and long-term client relationships. The strategy also aligns with broader trends in fintech where infrastructure providers focus on enabling other institutions rather than acquiring customers directly. As African economies digitise, small businesses are increasingly adopting digital tools to manage sales, payments and operations. Platforms that combine these functions into a single system can improve efficiency and data visibility for merchants while generating recurring revenue for providers. The company’s expansion into multiple markets highlights the demand for scalable merchant infrastructure across the continent, particularly as banks seek to retain relevance in a competitive financial services environment.