Cape Town-based fintech Peach Payments has secured a US$30-million (R575-million) funding round led by Apis Partners, a private equity firm.

UK-based Apis Partners made the investment through its Apis Growth Fund II fund, Peach Payments said in a statement on Tuesday. It comes after Apis Partners in April announced the fund’s intention to invest in Peach Payments as part of a round consisting of a mix of primary and secondary investments.

Peach Payments is an enterprise-grade digital payments service provider that enables online payments in Africa. “This funding has been raised to accelerate growth and will be used to build out new products and expand into new countries in Africa,” said CEO and co-founder Rahul Jain.

“We also intend to double down on the markets in which we already have a presence – South Africa, Kenya and Mauritius – to grow market share, expand our headcount and launch new products.”

Apis managing partner and co-founder Matteo Stefanel said there are “significant” opportunities in African payments, with “strong secular trends” unrelated to annual business cycles – such as the conversion from cash to digital and in-store to online payments – occurring across key markets.

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Jain said the new funding means Peach Payments can move faster. “Previously, we were constantly choosing one priority at a time. The capital we now have makes it possible to do three things in parallel, which improves our speed of execution.” — © 2023 NewsCentral Media