DPO Group, African payment service provider (PSP), has announced its acquisition of PayFast, one of the largest payment processors in South Africa
The deal by the Nairobi headquartered DPO Group was executed through a mix of shares and cash, with the PayFast management team remaining major shareholders in DPO Group. Following the transaction, DPO Group will be providing services to more than 100,000 merchants across 18 African markets.
The integration of PayFast into DPO’s services is set to increase the range of payment options available to DPO’s business customers while providing a Pan-African solution to PayFast’s existing customer base. This merger will allow all of the Group’s services to be available on a single platform to both DPO Group and PayFast merchants significantly improving their capacity to do business not only across Africa but also worldwide.
Offer Gat, chairman and co-founder of DPO Group, said that the combination of DPO Group and PayFast will increase the ability of merchants on the platform to do business with their clients both within and outside of Africa. Finally, it will allow DPO to continue to improve merchant services, allowing more merchants to transact more broadly at a lower cost.
Eran Feinstein, CEO and co-founder of DPO Group, added, “PayFast’s deep experience of payment processing and facilitation in South Africa complements and expands the services we can offer our business customers via the most diversified and robust suite of online payments options available in Africa.”
In 2016 DPO received investment from Apis Growth Fund I, a Private Equity fund managed by Apis Partners LLP. The Fund invests in innovators in the financial services sectors in Africa and Asia. The Fund supported this investment and will continue to facilitate DPO’s expansion across Africa; the broadening of its client base and investment in technology.
Jonathan Smit, managing director and co-founder of PayFast, said, “Integrating our processing and facilitation capability with the range of online payment services offered by DPO and its huge geographical reach across 18 countries in Africa is an extremely exciting opportunity for both companies. The coming together of two leading online payment specialists will have a positive impact on the African payments landscape and create better future career opportunities for our current and future talent. I am excited to be working with the DPO team in growing the business further in the years ahead.”
“The demand from African and global companies to make and receive payments reliably, securely and quickly, is growing exponentially. We are seeing this trend from both our SME and multinational customers. DPO Group is now in an even better position to not only meet that demand but accelerate opportunities for businesses and consumers,” Smit added.
