Apis Growth Fund II, a private equity fund managed by Apis Partners, a UK-based asset manager, is looking to invest €29 million (R563 million) in Peach Payments, a digital payment service provider that enables online payments in Africa.
Completion of the investment is subject to the approval of South Africa’s Competition Commission, and customary procedural and closing conditions.
Peach’s existing investors include UW Ventures, Launch Africa and AG Ventures.
It was founded by Jain and Andreas Demleitner in 2012 in Cape Town, offering a payment gateway to local online merchants. It expanded to Kenya in 2018 and Mauritius in 2021.
Apis Partners supports growth stage financial services and financial infrastructure businesses.
According to the asset manager, Peach is the second-largest online payment gateway in SA, with activities in Kenya and Mauritius, and a staff complement of nearly 150 international professionals.
In a statement, it says Peach has experienced exceptional growth in recent years, with revenue increasing more than 650% since 2020, and 80% in 2022 alone.
Apis notes the investment by the fund will accelerate Peach’s expansion across new African markets, to deepen its product offering and reinforce its core merchant value proposition.
It adds it will leverage its networks and experience in scaling payment companies to support Peach’s growth and geographic expansion.
As an investor, it says, it will help Peach to maximise financial inclusion by enabling more merchants to participate and grow in today’s increasingly digital global economy.
“We continue to see significant opportunity in African payments, as strong secular trends that are not related to annual business cycles – such as the conversion from cash to digital and in-store to online payments – persist across key markets,” says Matteo Stefanel, co-founder and managing partner at Apis Partners.
“We have been impressed by the vision and execution of the management team, as Peach Payments capitalises on these trends to bring more end-users into the digital economy, a key part of our drive to democratise access across the continent. We look forward to partnering with Peach Payments to expand its reach into new markets with innovative merchant solutions.”
“Peach Payments, one of Africa’s most exciting high-growth businesses with a relentless focus on technology and operational leadership, is at the forefront of enabling next-generation payments for merchants across the continent,” says Udayan Goyal, Apis Partners co-founder and managing partner.
“We are excited to partner with Peach Payments’ fantastic team and look forward to leveraging Apis’s capital, expertise and global network to support new investment in Peach Payments’ infrastructure, products and people to consolidate the company’s recent gains and support the next phase of growth.”
“At Peach Payments, our mission is to enable African businesses and entrepreneurs to succeed in digital commerce. We want to be the infrastructure layer they build their business on. This was our original vision when we started, and is more relevant today than ever,” says Rahul Jain, co-founder and CEO of Peach Payments.
“We’ve witnessed incredible growth in the past three years, driven by fundamental forces and shifts in consumer and business adoption of digital commerce. Across market segments – from retail to digital learning, fitness, and even traditional financial services – we’ve onboarded new clients in almost every vertical.
“We’ve built a very strong team with exceptional operators and I am excited to partner with the team at Apis and take this business to where it deserves to be. The Apis team brings an incredible wealth of experience in fintech across the globe and we look forward to exploring exponential opportunities together with them.”
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