Stitch raises $21m to build the future of Africa’s fintech
OpenBankingExpo | News
14 Feb 2022
South Africa’s API fintech Stitch has raised $21 million in a Series A round led by New York’s Spruce House Partnership.
Other new investors in the Cape Town-based start-up that is building software infrastructure for Africa’s growing fintech sector include PayPal Ventures, TrueLayer and Village Global.
The funds will support the company’s plans to expand into new markets and products.
Kiaan Pillay, Stitch co-founder & CEO
Kiaan Pillay, co-founder and CEO of Stitch, said in the company’s official video, “We are really excited to continue to build up the team.
“From a product perspective, to deepen what we do in the payments sphere and really complete the loop, both pay-ins and pay-outs in the ecosystem. But [we are] also excited what other African markets we can expand into.”
Junaid Dadan, CPO and co-founder, said, “A solution like Stitch is important because it helps fintechs and entrepreneurs move a lot faster than they would do otherwise.
We are using technology to empower entrepreneurs and start-ups to create more economic value and social impact.”
“Our goal is to help fast-growing fintech and embedded finance companies more easily launch increasingly innovative and tailored products,” Pillay added.
Founded in 2019, the company builds financial infrastructure that links bank accounts, wallets and other stores of value. Some of its clients include pan-African money-transfer firm Chipper Cash, crypto platform Luno, subscriptions platform Rentoza, payments technology company YoCo and mobile-payments firm Zapper.
“Stitch is building critical infrastructure to enable faster, easier and more secure payments across Africa,” said Ashish Aggarwal, director at PayPal Ventures. “We believe they will play a significant role in contributing to the overall growth of the fintech space in Africa.”
To date, Stitch has raised $27 million, following the $4 million raised in February 2021 and the $2 million extension round, bringing its seed round to $6 million.
Start-ups in Africa raised a record of more than $4.9 billion in total estimated funding last year – a more than 250% increase from $1.3 billion in the previous year. The continent presents plentiful opportunities for fintechs as demand for their services is set to grow.
