SA’s Top 10 FinTech Firms to Keep an Eye on

Don’t be left in the dark with what’s disrupting the financial services industry in South Africa.

The FinTech (Financial Technology) sector is experiencing explosive growth in the country. It is revolutionising the financial services landscape and it has created a new marketplace for innovation.

It is revolutionising the financial services landscape and it has created a new marketplace for innovation.

It helps the unbanked to have access to digital financial services.

South African FinTech firms are expanding into the rest of the African continent as it offers growth opportunities.

Here are the top 10 South African FinTech companies, in no particular order, we think you should keep an eye on.

Mama Money Expanding Across the Continent

Mama Money was established in 2013, but we only launched in January 2015.

Mama Money enables migrants in South Africa to send money back home at a low fee with no hidden costs and no margin charged on the exchange rate.

The start-up aims to also expand into Mozambique, Malawi, and Kenya by April

South Africa’s Mama Money is expanding its footprint into Nigeria – Africa’s biggest economy, Ghana and Tanzania using the network of its retail partner PEP.

The FinTech firm focusing on money transfer service is also targeting to grow its business into Mozambique, Malawi, and Kenya by April. It has also earmarked a country outside of Africa for entry later this year.

The company already assist for Zimbabweans living in South Africa to send money home in an affordable way. In Nigeria, Mama Money is connected to the 25 biggest banks and a mobile wallet called VKash.

In Ghana, Mama Money is working with MTN Mobile Money and Airtel Money.

In Tanzania, Mama Money’s launch partners are Vodacom M-Pesa, EzyPesa and Airtel Money.

For more read: SA’s FinTech start-up Mama Money expands into Nigeria, Ghana and Tanzania

Yoco Growing Fast to Service Mzansi Market

Yoco launched at the end of 2015, after a successful beta programme, with 500 merchants.

At the end of 2016, the company announced it had acquired over 5 000 SME merchants, growing 10x in a year.

The company has doubled in size since the beginning of the year and is now adding over 1 000 new SME merchants to the platform every month.

It now has 10 000 SMEs in South Africa using its point-of-sale payments platform to accept card payments

For more read:  Yoco Gives 10 000 Entrepreneurs Access to Card Payment Facilities 

Entersekt Gets Investment Firms Backing

Stellenbosch-based FinTech innovator Entersekt has received an undisclosed amount as an investment from AlphaCode and BoE Private Equity Investments.

The company has developed world-class push-based authentication and app security

technology.

Entersekt’s patented security products protect close to 100 million of transactions monthly while complying with the world’s most stringent regulatory guidelines.

Enterprises across the globe look to Entersekt to strengthen the bond of trust they share with their customers, and to build on those relationships by introducing compelling, user-friendly new mobile and online services.

Entersekt has already secured several large banking clients including Absa, Nedbank, Capitec, Investec, Swisscard, Equity Bank, Ecobank, Pluscard and First Bank of Colorado.

The company has also extended beyond the banking sector providing authentication solutions for Old Mutual among others and has signed reseller agreements in Europe and in the US. Entersekt continues to have a strong sales pipeline.

Mobile authentication is a fast-growing industry that is an enabler of financial services driven by the need to perform riskier transactions more simply without complex authentication processes. Recently a client’s customer processed a $65 million transaction via the mobile using Entersekt’s encryption technology.

For more read: SA’s Investment Firms Take Up Stakes in Stellenbosch-based innovator Entersekt

PayFast is South Africa’s Biggest Online Payment Gateways

PayFast  – with more than 80 000 registered merchants – is celebrating its 10th birthday amidst a flurry of FinTech players and crypto currencies such as Bitcoin set to challenge its business.

The company was launched by Jonathan Smit in 2007 in South Africa.

This South Africa’s Biggest Online Payment Gateways was set up make online transactions simple, secure, and accessible to all South African sellers and buyers.

For more read: SA’s PayFast Celebrates a Decade in Business With 80 000 Registered Merchants

MyBucks Conquering the World

African FinTech firm MyBucks, which was founded by South African-born Dave van Niekerk, through its brands GetBucks, GetBanked and GetSure offers unsecured consumer loans, banking solutions as well as insurance products to customers.

MyBucks has experienced exponential growth since its inception in 2011 and today has

operations in nine African and two European countries. In June, MyBucks – the first African focused Fintech company listed in Germany – started trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

In July 2016, the firm extended its operations into Kenya, Mozambique, and Tanzania.

Last August, MyBucks announced a partnership with Frankfurt-listed technology banking group FinTech Group AG to boost its consumer lending activities across both Africa and Europe.

For more read: Fintech firm MyBucks aims to mitigate fraud and identity theft

Synthesis Moving FinTech to the Cloud

JSE listed Capital Appreciation Limited announced on Wednesday that it has acquired 100 percent of Synthesis Software Technologies for R132.1 million.

Synthesis is a specialised financial technology company that provides software

development, consulting, and integration services to financial institutions. Current clients include blue chip financial organisations such as Investec, Absa, Standard Bank, Capitec and Nedbank.

It will remain independent, operating as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Capital Appreciation.

Synthesis, founded in 1997, offers highly specialised software development, consulting and integration services and technology based product solutions to banking and financial institutions in South Africa and other emerging markets.

Its focus is on the biggest impact areas for FinTech:  cloud, digital channels, blockchain, big data. In addition, Synthesis addresses upcoming trends such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

For more read: SA’s Fintech Services Business Synthesis Bought for R132 million

Zoona on its Journey to be a Billion-dollar Business Helping African Communities Thrive

The South African-based FinTech firm was launched in 2009.

The agents of the Cape Town-based firm have processed over $1 billion (R14.4 billion) in money transfers, bill payments, and other financial services in Zambia and Malawi in the past seven years.

The firm is planning to expand into two unnamed African countries.

Zoona’s entrepreneur agents serve more than one million customers every 60 day, across close to 1,500 locations. The company said its iconic green booths have become a staple across the landscapes of Zambia and Malawi.

For more read: SA’s FinTech firm Zoona helping communities to thrive in Malawi, Zambia

ThisIsMe Giving a Heartbeat to Your Online Identity

A South African startup is simplifying the process to establish and verify the identities of clients.

This South African start-up ThisIsMe, which has innovation that’s “giving a heartbeat to your identity” is making it easy and affordable for corporates and clients to comply with the Financial Intelligence Centre Amendment (FICA) Act 2017.

Conceptualised in 2013 and formally established in 2014, ThisIsMe verifies an individual’s identity to other individuals, businesses, financial institutions, and regulators. It does so using links to Home Affairs data and the major banks.

ThisIsMe has set an African record for the FICA process, which used to take anywhere from two days to two weeks.

The innovative startup has ensured that the process is now completed within three minutes.

For more read: You Can Now Verify Your Digital Identity Under 3 Minutes, Thanks To A SA Start Up

SA’s Matchi Helping Firms Navigate Shifting Landscape of Finance

Matchi, a financial innovation matchmaking firm, has been signing up banks on its online

“matchmaking” service to connect with Fintech start-ups providing cheaper, easier financial technology services to consumers.

The company was started just over three years ago with CEO David Milligan (formerly of FNB) at the helm.

Matchi was started as a direct result of a problem encountered by its founder: how hard it is for financial technology firms and financial institutions to find each other in a meaningful way.

In the past three years, the Johannesburg and Hong Kong-based financial innovation matchmaking firm has collaborated with more than 100 financial institutions and boast a network of more than 2500 categorised FinTech firms from around the world.

Global professional services firm KPMG has Matchi to create a powerful FinTech resource.

Matchi is at the forefront of identifying breakthrough FinTech technology.

For more read: SA’s Matchi Helping Firms Navigate Shifting Landscape of Finance

SA’s a FinTech Startup Peach Payments Expands to Kenya, Nigeria

Peach Payments, a FinTech startup that makes customer payments to online merchants seamless and secure, is now processing more than R1-billion in transactions per year and

expanding into Kenya and Nigeria with plans for other African countries.

The business started trading in South Africa just three years ago.

This month it launched a new offering, PaySafe, which has already processed transactions worth R1-million, and will change how businesses collect invoices and payments globally.

Peach PaySafe is ideal for businesses that are not online but still want an online payment facility. SMEs such as freelancers, professionals, and tour operators, for instance, can simply email clients who will be able to click and pay online. No integration is required, the service is safe and easy, and merchants can customise it with their logo.

For more read: SA’s a FinTech startup Peach Payments expands to Kenya, Nigeria

Despite this list of FinTech firms to keep an eye on, there are other that are successful, which you also need to watch. For more read: The unstoppable rise of African FinTech is rapidly changing the way Africans transact