South Africa: Stitch Secures Additional $25 Million in Series A Funding, Bringing Total to $46 Million

Stitch, the South African API fintech startup, has successfully raised an additional $25 million in funding, expanding its Series A funding to a total of $46 million. The funding round was led by Ribbit Capital and featured participation from existing investors, including CRE Ventures, PayPal Ventures, and the Raba Partnership.

Founded by Kiaan Pillay (CEO), Natalie Cuthbert, and Priyen Pillay, Stitch emerged from stealth mode in 2021 and has since focused on developing a comprehensive payment solution designed to address the complex and evolving payment requirements of its clients. With this latest funding injection, Stitch aims to solidify its position in the payment market.

Stitch’s core mission is to empower companies to create, optimize, and scale financial products while offering API gateways to enhance online payment conversion and streamline payment processes for its clients. Originally, Stitch served as a data and bank-to-bank payments platform but later expanded its offerings. Its diverse customer base, ranging from businesses to sole proprietors, gained access to financial account management and the ability to innovate in areas such as personal finance, lending, insurance, payments, and wealth management.

The fintech currently provides a comprehensive payment service, enabling customers to accept payments through various methods, including pay-by-bank, debit and credit cards, recurring debits, cash, and manual bank transfers. The platform, known as PayOS, offers payment management, orchestration, and reconciliation capabilities across multiple providers, geographies, and payment methods through a unified dashboard. Customers can also use Stitch’s payout feature for fund distribution.

Stitch has established itself as a preferred partner for leading South African enterprises, including MTN, MultiChoice, Yoco, and Standard Bank’s SnapScan, offering end-to-end payment solutions tailored to their needs.

The company distinguishes itself by providing users with enhanced dependability, higher uptime, and faster problem resolution by eliminating intermediaries and establishing direct connections with banks and networks. In addition to open banking features, Stitch offers customer support, localized insights into the payments landscape, and co-created, customized solutions to streamline money-related processes.

One of Stitch’s subsidiaries, WigWag, facilitates payments for small businesses and micro-influencers selling products and services on social media platforms through links and cards.

According to CEO Kiaan Pillay, Stitch maintains a client base of startups and small businesses in Nigeria and other African nations where it is authorized to operate. The fintech expanded into Nigeria in October 2021 and received a $2 million seed extension from investors, including Future Africa and the Norrsken Foundation.

Stitch competes with Mono, Okra, Revio, and MoneyHash in the fintech space, providing services to international PSP (Payment Service Provider) partners and exploring similar agreements with various consumer Internet companies. The company anticipates processing over 50 million transactions in 2023, with a total payment volume (TPV) exceeding $2 billion across seven product features introduced since 2022.