Efforts by South African fintech startup Peach Payments to expand its products offering and reach yielded a boost recently with an additional investment to capitalise on its accelerated growth over the last year. Peach Payments enables businesses to easily accept payments on their websites and mobile apps, integrating with leading e-commerce platforms like WooCommerce, Shopify, Wix and Magento. The startup has already expanded into Kenya and Mauritius, and has been working on scaling its presence to other countries across the continent after securing investment last year led by UW Ventures, in partnership with Allan Gray.
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It has now raised a new round of funding, again led by UW Ventures in partnership with Allan Gray, alongside Launch Africa Ventures and other existing investors. Peach Payments co-founder Rahul Jain said the investments were earmarked for growth acceleration outside of South Africa as well as scaling up the business’s current products and services, and operational and engineering teams.
“This new investment round is a great indicator of the confidence our investors have in our core business model and hypothesis. Peach set solid growth targets for itself in 2020, and we far outperformed those expectations. While COVID-19 and the acceleration of digital commerce provided strong tailwinds for the business – we doubled down during 2020 and invested heavily into identified growth areas to make the most of the opportunities,” he said.
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“These investments effectively mean that we are able to not only meet the demand that the current environment provides but also create enhanced services for our customers – in South Africa and beyond its borders – as well as the technical and staff resources required to meet that demand. It is optimal for us to grow now.”
Peach Payments saw a 400 per cent increase in customer acquisition last year and revenue growth of 130 per cent. Co-founder Andreas Demleitner said while the startup’s original vision to “bring a world-class payments solution to businesses in Africa” had not changed, it has expanded to “meet the customer where they do business digitally, be it on an e-commerce site, app, SMS, or mobile phone, and make it easier for them to succeed”.
Demleitner said growth into Africa is key, and while scaling up current operations in Kenya and Mauritius, the team is investigating opportunities in other East and West African countries. Harry Apostoleris, co-founder at UW Ventures, said Peach Payments’ growth over the last year reflected the company’s commitment to supporting merchants in building and adapting their businesses, especially during the digital acceleration experienced over the last 12 months.
“We are excited to continue supporting the company’s mission and their ambitions of building an enduring pan-African enterprise underpinned by world class technology,” he said.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry