BY TOM JACKSON
Cape Town-based fintech startup Peach Payments has raised an undisclosed amount of growth funding to drive its expansion across Africa.
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 now plans to rapidly scale its presence to other countries across the continent after securing investment. The round, which was closed earlier this year, is led by UW Ventures, in partnership with Allan Gray, and also involves industry experts as well as existing investors.
Peach Payments will use the funding to accelerate product development and extend market reach. The startup has seen strong growth of late as it enables South African businesses to accelerate online commerce solutions and transform or pivot during COVID-19. Monthly customer acquisition has grown by 400 per cent since February, with revenue growing by more than 100 per cent per annum.
“We see significant revenue growth even during this crisis. This is being driven by the acceleration of consumer adoption of e-commerce and by developing more localised products for African merchants,” said Peach Payments co-founder Rahul Jain.
“Our relationship with UW Ventures and Allan Gray will further our ambition to help drive growth of digital commerce in Africa.”
Andreas Demleitner, co-founder of Peach Payments, said the investment had also seen the startup add to its product suite.
“With this funding, we’ve expanded to include support for new platforms such as Xero and Wix – to make it easier for African startups and SMEs to easily take their business online,” he said.
Harry Apostoleris, director at UW Ventures, said Peach Payments was rapidly capitalising on the large digital payments opportunity through its modern platform and superior customer service.
“We have confidence that the company’s globally experienced leadership team will continue on this growth trajectory while further enhancing the customer value proposition,” he said.
