#4: Stitch

How many hours a day of blackouts do you have?

This may sound like a strange question, but the answer rolls off the tongue of any South African. Here, in South Africa, we have around 10 hours without electricity every day. Weekends are better but not good.

And yes, we do know that this is a crazy situation. But this is our reality.

You might be surprised to learn that, despite the power outages, South Africa has a very advanced banking sector. Our banks are amongst the best in the world. They are highly capitalized and very well managed. They operate in challenging circumstances, and this, combined with a robust regulatory framework, has hardened them.

Enter the game-changer.

Stitch is a tool for handling payments. Stitch offers an all-in-one API (which is software developer talk for “tool”) that makes it easy to add the following services to any app:

• Receive payments

• Track and manage payments

• Handle refunds

This combination makes Stitch an end-to-end payment service provider. It may not sound like a big deal, but just take a minute to think about how complicated it can be to handle payments through different mediums from different banks across different geographies.

Stitch supports multiple payment methods - cards, debit orders, bank transfers, and cash (yes, cash, even for online purchases). PayOS is Stich’s payment management system. It is the place to view, reconcile and manage all payments. And finally, Stitch’s Payouts allows for refunds to be processed programmatically.

This end-to-end system is powerful.

In February 2021, Stitch emerged from stealth with a $4 million seed round. The 3 co-founders, Priyen Pillay, Natalie Cuthbert, and Kiaan Pillay, began working on Stitch towards the end of 2019. They first launched the product as a data and identity layer to help developers add financial data to their apps and products.

They have since expanded into payments with their end-to-end solution.

Stich also raised a $2 million seed extension in late 2021 and a $21 million series A round at the beginning of 2022.

Stitch has offices in South Africa, in both Johannesburg and Cape Town, and in Lagos, Nigeria. They are hiring for a bunch of roles.

Payment and financial tools are obviously a massive industry, and Stitch is operating in an interesting space. Not only is their tech advanced, but they are also targeting Africa - a generally underserved and less wealthy population. They are pushing the bounds of what was thought to be possible with products like their cash payment gateway, and they are building tools that empower other builders.

This is a company to keep an eye on.

Thanks for reading Arena

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~ Mordi Goldstein

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