South African travel-focused fintech TurnStay has raised $2 million in seed funding to expand across African markets The round was led by First Circle Capital and joined by TLcom Capital, Enza Capital, Incisive Ventures, CVVC, and Equitable Ventures The startup operates a merchant-of-record structure combined with payment orchestration, allowing card payments to be processed in…
Judy Winn Combining AI, ML, network intelligence and next-generation payment hubs can reduce risk in real-time payments, according to payments experts at the ACI Worldwide Payments Intelligence Roadshow, in Johannesburg. Outlining trends in global payments and new risks inherent in instant payments, ACI Worldwide experts noted that technologies such as cloud native payment hubs, advanced…
MoneyBadger’s partnership with Peach Payments has gone live, with the intention to broaden Bitcoin adoption and use in retail. African payment services provider Peach Payments has partnered with South African Bitcoin and crypto payments solution provider MoneyBadger to enable its merchants to accept payment in Bitcoin and other crypto assets. The companies cite research by…
Reserve Bank govenor Lesetja Kganyago The South African Reserve Bank has released a position paper outlining how it intends carrying out its national payments ecosystem modernisation programme. According to Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago, the programme’s objectives include developing and establishing a national payments utility, increasing competition, and ensuring cash is no longer the only…
New York — Today, 3.4 billion people live in countries that spend more on debt interest payments than on health or education. This marks a trembling indication that the United Nations’ promise for the 2030 Agenda could be slipping away. With less than five years left, developing countries are facing an estimated USD 4 trillion…
APP scam losses are on the rise, according to ACI Worldwide’s latest Scamscope report. Amid an ever-changing payments landscape, real-time payments are booming, offering significant value for financial institutions. At the same time, Authorized Push Payment (APP) scam losses are on the rise. To unpack these and other key trends in payments and fraud prevention,…
Stitch has announced that it has acquired Efficacy Payments, enabling it to offer card acquiring services directly to merchants as a designated clearing system participant (DCSP) and provide more seamless and cost-effective transactions. Image supplied “We’re excited to welcome the Efficacy team into the Stitch Group and offer this critical solution to the merchants we…
Cape Town-based fintech Stitch has announced its second major acquisition this year, coming less than three months after securing a R1-billion fundraising round. The company, which emerged from stealth in February 2021, has now raised a total of US$107 million in funding, including its recent Series B round of $55 million. Read: Bandwidth Blog &…
TLDR Africa has launched its first pan-African payment card system, PAPSSCARD, aiming to cut dependence on foreign card networks The PAPSSCARD is a joint venture by Afreximbank, the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), and Mercury Payment Services (MPS) PAPSSCARD will be usable across national borders, reducing the cost of intra-African trade and payment transactions…
Flutterwave named to TIME100 Most Influential Companies List for Second Time. Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payment technology company, has been named among the TIME100 Most Influential Companies List of 2025. This marks the second time the company has received this prestigious global honor. Flutterwave joins global leaders such as Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, Netflix, OpenAI, Universal Music…
