Payments infrastructure company Stitch has acquired Efficacy Payments, for an undisclosed amount.
This follows the acquisition of payments provider ExiPay in January, as part of the fintech firm’s expansion from online payments into the in-person payments space.
Launched in 2016, Efficacy was designated as a clearing system participant in 2021, making it the second fintech firm in SA to receive this label.
In a statement, Stitch says it will now offer card acquiring services directly to merchants as a designated clearing system participant.
Bringing Efficacy within the group will enable Stitch to offer direct card clearing, both online and in-person, it states.
“We’re excited to welcome the Efficacy team into the Stitch Group and offer this critical solution to the merchants we work with,” says Stitch president and co-founder Junaid Dadan.
“Card processing is an essential requirement for businesses in South Africa, and we’ve seen a lot of room for improvement when it comes to conversion, recon capabilities and access to the latest technology. We’re excited to see the impact this will have on the way our merchants collect card payments from their customers.”
The acquisition, according to the statement, makes Stitch the gateway, switch and the acquirer. This means merchants can work with one provider that can perform the end-to-end acquiring service across technical, compliance, financial and operational requirements.
In addition, the group is now directly connected to Visa and Mastercard, eliminating dependency on an intermediary acquiring bank or switch.
For enterprise merchants, this will result in better conversion, faster access to new products and features, real-time reporting and reconciliation, and cost savings, it notes.
Stitch is an application programming interface fintech start-up launched in February 2021, with offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg, and Lagos, Nigeria.
Today, Stitch offers an omnichannel payment platform, allowing multi-lane retailers, telcos and other omni-channel businesses to modernise their in-store and online payment.
Stitch has raised $107 million in total funding to date, including its recent Series B round of $55 million announced in April.
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