logo
South Africa: Cape Town fintech Stitch secures $53mln in funding

South Africa: Cape Town fintech Stitch secures $53mln in funding

Zawya17-04-2025

Payments infrastructure company Sitch a $55m (R1bn) Series B funding round, led by global investment firms QED Investors, Glynn Capital, Flourish Ventures, and Norrsken22, with participation from existing backers Ribbit Capital, PayPal Ventures, The Raba Partnership, and Firstminute Capital.
​​​This brings Stitch's total funding to $107m since launching four years ago. The company plans to use the latest round to deepen and expand its in-person payments offering, move into the acquiring space, and further enhance its online payments suite.
'We're super excited and proud to be where we are in the market today. We feel we've earned the right to work with clients across the board – not just for online or in-person payments but with any money movement needs,' said the Stitch team.
'It felt like the right time to more aggressively expand our offering so we can further serve our clients. We've been fortunate to know all the new investors in the round for many years, and they all come with an impressive amount of fintech experience, including support in scaling similar businesses in other markets.'
Gbenga Ajayi, partner and head of Africa and the Middle East at QED Investors, commented:
'Having closely followed the Stitch team over the past four years, it's been impressive to watch their rapid growth and execution in becoming a trusted payment provider.
'At QED Investors, we're thrilled to partner with such visionary founders and confident that Stitch will continue to set new standards in the payments industry across Africa and beyond.'
Stitch currently supports some of South Africa's top enterprise businesses, including Takealot, Mr. D, MTN, Vodacom, Standard Bank's Shyft, TFG's Bash, Hollywoodbets, Luno, The Courier Guy, and more.
Its platform includes a full suite of end-to-end payment methods:
- Card, Pay by bank, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Capitec Pay, Absa Pay, Nedbank Direct EFT, DebiCheck, manual EFT, cash, and 24/7, 365 payouts
- In-person payments across multi-lane retail and omnichannel businesses

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Stitch Raises $10M to Improve Financial Infrastructure in MENA
Stitch Raises $10M to Improve Financial Infrastructure in MENA

Fintech News ME

time4 days ago

  • Fintech News ME

Stitch Raises $10M to Improve Financial Infrastructure in MENA

Stitch, a Saudi Arabia-based platform for launching and scaling financial products, has announced the close of a US$10 million seed funding round. The round was led by Arbor Ventures, COTU Ventures, Raed Ventures, and SVC, with participation from family offices and industry figures including Marqeta founder Jason Gardner and Abdulmalik AlSheikh, known for his role in establishing the mada and Sadad payment networks in Saudi Arabia. The funding will support Stitch's efforts to expand its team and enhance its technology platform, which aims to simplify the development and launch of financial services. Demand for integrated financial infrastructure is increasing across both the Middle East and global markets. The global banking and financial services industry is projected to grow from US$91.42 billion in 2024 to US$221.39 billion by 2033, at a compound annual growth rate of 10.3 percent. In Saudi Arabia, banking sector assets have reached US$1.12 trillion (SAR 4.22 trillion), while digital payments grew by 75 percent between 2019 and 2021. Point-of-sale transactions in the country totalled US$177.69 billion (SAR 667 billion) in the 2024 financial year. Despite this growth, many businesses in the region continue to face challenges in building financial products due to outdated systems and complex regulations. Stitch aims to address this with a unified, API-driven platform. Currently serving clients in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the company has also expanded into East Africa, beginning with Kenya. Mohamed Oueida, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Stitch, said: 'Businesses are forced to navigate outdated legacy systems and complex regulatory frameworks, making things slow, expensive, and mostly painful. It does not have to be this way. Stitch exists to change this. Institutions should be able to focus on what matters and have a platform that can mould around their creativity. We are generally looking to make this process a lot more enjoyable for our partners.' Stitch's platform enables clients to develop and launch financial services more efficiently, with the company claiming product deployment times can be reduced by up to 80 percent. Clients include Lulu Exchange, Alamoudi Exchange, Foodics, Dar Al Tamleek, Raya Financing, and Tanmeya Capital, all of whom are using the platform to offer customised financial solutions. Founded in 2022, Stitch has brought together talent from institutions such as FIS, Geidea, Rain Financial, NPCI India, and Al Rajhi Bank, with a focus on long-term innovation in banking and payments.

Daiso Japan introduces its enchanting new Disney Stitch and Kuromi collection
Daiso Japan introduces its enchanting new Disney Stitch and Kuromi collection

Khaleej Times

time30-05-2025

  • Khaleej Times

Daiso Japan introduces its enchanting new Disney Stitch and Kuromi collection

Daiso Japan, the number one Japanese value store in the UAE, offers over 80,000 products, with 800 new items every month, and most items are just Dh7.5. With over 80 stores across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Bahrain, Daiso Japan provides an extensive range of affordable products for everyday needs. Daiso Japan introduces its enchanting new Stitch and Kuromi collection, inspired by Disney's beloved Lilo & Stitch and the ultra-kawaii Sanrio favorite Kuromi. These exclusive ranges are designed to delight fans of all ages, combining functionality with irresistible character yourselves, Stitch & Kuromi lovers — the ultimate cute takeover has landed at Daiso Japan, and it's total cuteness overload! Brace yourselves, Stitch & Kuromi lovers, the ultimate cute takeover has landed at Daiso Japan, and it's total cuteness overload! From the moment you step in, it's Stitch & Kuromi everywhere - on tumblers in different styles, travel pouches, bags, caps, toys, adorable keychain pendants, coloring sets, notebooks, and even socks. Whether you're packing for a trip, organising your home, or stocking up on back-to-school supplies, we've got your favorite characters covered. Heading on a holiday? Don't miss our neck pillows, eye masks, cute headsets and cable chargers — perfect travel accessories for your next adventure. And for beauty lovers: we've got a full hair accessory set with a hairbrush, mirror, bows, hair clips, elastic bands, and more — available in both Stitch and Kuromi designs! Even better? Most of these items start at just Dh7.5 — yes, really! That's what we call Value, Variety & Uniqueness — only at Daiso Japan. Whether you're searching for affordable gifts, Disney merchandise, or stationery, Daiso Japan has something for everyone.

Still carrying cash? Over 90% of small businesses in UAE accept digital payments
Still carrying cash? Over 90% of small businesses in UAE accept digital payments

Khaleej Times

time30-05-2025

  • Khaleej Times

Still carrying cash? Over 90% of small businesses in UAE accept digital payments

Before most of the city is awake, Deira is already moving — loud, fast, and still dealing mostly in cash. At the fish market just off Palm Deira Metro Station, the floor is slick with ice water and fish scales. Crates rattle open to reveal hammour and kingfish, striped yellow-like brush strokes. Prawns are stacked like glass, still twitching. The air smells like diesel and salt. Vendors shout in Malayalam, Arabic, and Hindi. Restaurant buyers haggle in half-sentences. A five-dirham note flutters from a pocket. No one's tapping. No one's scanning. And yet, just 20 minutes away, the future is already here. Inside a DIFC café lined with concrete and chrome, a woman in a tailored blazer taps her Apple Watch to pay for a flat white. A sign by the register reads: Contactless only. This is the UAE in 2025: one of the most digitally connected economies in the world, and yet still tethered, in many ways, to the physical currency it's preparing to leave behind. With the goal of becoming 90 per cent cashless by 2026, the country is racing towards a financial future few others have come close to reaching. In many ways, it's already there. Digital wallets are everywhere — Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay, Careem Pay, PayBy. Contactless transactions are now so embedded in daily life that younger residents joke they haven't touched an ATM in years. Whether for groceries in Sharjah or a mani-pedi in Jumeirah, tap-to-pay is the new normal. The scale of adoption is massive. Mastercard's latest SME Confidence Index shows that 92 per cent of small- and medium-sized businesses in the UAE now accept digital payments, and many have dropped cash altogether. Eighty-three per cent of businesses say they're upgrading payment systems to keep up with customer expectations. Even in areas traditionally slower to adopt tech — tailoring shops, barbers, mom-and-pop groceries — cashless tools are creeping in. In Karama, several businesses that once only took cash now have QR codes on the counter or card machines behind them. It's less about pressure and more about practicality; once enough customers stop carrying bills, there's not much choice but to adapt. Visa's Value of Acceptance study backs that up — more than 70 per cent of the UAE merchants surveyed said they saw increased revenue and higher customer footfall after accepting digital payments. Salima Gutieva, Visa's vice president and country manager for the UAE, said small businesses often stick to cash because of 'perceived customer preference and limited payment infrastructure.' But she points to tools like Visa Direct, Tap to Phone, and Click to Pay as helping merchants overcome those hurdles. 'Education on the security and efficiency of these methods is helping more businesses see digital payments as a critical investment in growth.' The UAE Central Bank introduced a regulatory framework that allowed non-bank payment service providers to operate alongside traditional banks — a pivotal move that formally brought fintech firms into the country's financial system. It enabled services like mobile wallets, QR-code payments, and peer-to-peer transfers to scale legally. To keep pace, the Central Bank also launched sandbox environments — controlled settings where fintechs can test new products with regulatory oversight before going to market. Together, these steps have helped create a safer, more open digital payment ecosystem. It wasn't just organic growth — it was engineered. Dubai's digital authority, Smart Dubai, laid out a formal Cashless Framework, mapping the steps to a fully digitised economy. The plan starts with government services —making everything from utility bills to traffic fines payable only through digital channels. Need to renew a driver's licence or pay a parking ticket? You do it through an app or online portal. From there, the framework builds out secure 'rails' connecting banks, telecom providers, and private payment platforms. The goal is a system that's not just faster, but traceable, standardised, and built for scale. Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, director-general of Digital Dubai, in a public statement, put it simply: 'Cashless payments are integral to daily life. We aim to establish Dubai as a global digital capital and an attractive investment destination.' And it's already paying off. According to the Emirates News Agency, the UAE's payments revenue pool is projected to hit Dh27.3 billion by 2028, fuelled by fintech growth and digital adoption across the public and private sectors. Government estimates also suggest the cashless transition could unlock more than Dh8 billion in additional economic growth annually. Still, for all the sleek infrastructure and tap-to-pay ease, cash hasn't exactly vanished. Not yet. According to Visa's Where Cash Hides report, 23 per cent of transactions in the UAE are still made in cash — mostly peer-to-peer moments like tipping valets, splitting bills, or paying for informal services. But even that number comes with nuance: 61 per cent of respondents said only one or two of their last 10 purchases were in cash. Just 3 per cent said all 10 were. Where notes are needed According to Gutieva, the cash that remains in circulation is mostly used in specific settings — like open-air markets, taxis, and informal exchanges between friends. She says it often comes down to habit or the belief that cash is quicker and more widely accepted, especially in places where digital options aren't yet the norm. 'While the UAE is advancing towards a cashless society, we still see cash usage in certain segments. This is often due to habit, the belief that cash is quicker, or retailers still only accept cash,' Gutieva said. At the same time, Gutieva points to several forces pushing adoption forward. 'Positive factors driving digital adoption include the UAE government's progressive vision, widespread smartphone use, and the popularity of ecommerce,' she said. 'Younger, tech-savvy consumers are also contributing to a shift, supported by digital platforms offering rewards, security, and convenience.' Younger, tech-savvy consumers are also contributing to a shift, supported by digital platforms offering rewards, security, and convenience" Salima Gutieva, Visa Still, that lingering reliance on cash — and what it reveals about behaviour, access, and trust — is something economist Jeremy Srouji has spent years studying. A PhD candidate in international economics at Université Côte d'Azur and the International Institute of Social Studies at Erasmus University, his work focuses on how digital payment ecosystems emerge and evolve in cash-reliant economies like the UAE. 'The move to a cashless economy is a global trend,' Srouji said. In the UAE, it's been accelerated by deliberate policy shifts — especially when the Central Bank opened the market to non-bank payment service providers, breaking open what had long been a bank-dominated space. 'This was a catalyst for diversifying the sector with mobile payments, peer-to-peer transfers, but also the lucrative online payment space.' But Srouji cautions that we shouldn't rush to call this a 'cashless' society. 'It is probably a misnomer to speak of a 'cashless economy',' he said. 'An advanced digital payments ecosystem is probably the better term, but unfortunately the marketers won that battle.' While digital payments have surged, cash hasn't exactly disappeared. He argues that cash levels have been consistently on the rise in the UAE, even as cash transactions have declined in favour of digital payments. Why? 'In a modern financial economy, there is essentially no scenario in which cash, which is central bank money, can be eliminated,' he explained. 'This is because central bank money is the ultimate guarantor of the commercial bank money — the loans, deposits, and credit instruments managed by the private banking system.' He continued: 'In a healthy, diversified, and growing economy such as the UAE, cash-in-circulation, that is cash outside of the banking system, will tend to increase alongside digital payments, in parallel with the expansion of credit, investment, and consumption.' And while policymakers often cite the shadow economy as a reason to eliminate cash, Srouji says the link isn't so simple. 'The argument is often made that eliminating cash will help to reduce the footprint of the shadow or grey economy,' he said. 'While I would agree, the matter is not as clear cut as it first appears.' He referenced a 2020 study by Cohen, Rubinchik & Shami, which 'showed that such initiatives may backfire, pushing actors in the shadow economy — particularly well-organised criminal networks — to go to more extreme lengths to launder money into the formal economy, with potentially more dangerous outcomes.' Instead of phasing out cash to crack down on crime, Srouji suggests it's more effective to focus on strengthening the UAE's existing anti-money laundering and financial crime regulations. The country has already made progress in that area, he said, and allowing cash and digital payments to exist side by side — with strong oversight — is likely a more balanced and secure approach. When it comes to financial inclusion, Srouji's stance is clear. 'If not enshrined in a comprehensive financial inclusion strategy, it can be argued that going cashless is a catalyst for financial exclusion,' he wrote. 'Truly cashless economies — such as Sweden, and South Korea — are a rarity, with low levels of inequality, where all adults have access to a basic bank account and digital payment instrument, and where the right to hold an account is often enshrined in law.' He added: 'The UAE context is different, with a rich diversity of cultures that have distinct spending and technology habits.' One key distinction, he noted, is the sheer volume of outgoing remittances by migrant workers — many of whom still rely on cash due to gaps in digital infrastructure at the receiving end. 'Some remittance corridors will always be cash-reliant, as long as digital financial services are not available at both ends of these corridors.' In simpler terms: even if a foreign worker in Dubai can send money digitally, it doesn't help if their family back home can't receive it the same way. Until both sides of the transaction are online, cash will still have a role to play. Srouji sees the UAE's digital currency experiments as a key part of making the shift to a cashless economy more inclusive. 'The question of financial inclusion is a critical one, and is the reason why, faced with the decline in cash transactions, central banks around the world are exploring central bank digital currency (CBDC) as a new form of central bank money,' he said. 'The UAE has participated in some major global CBDC initiatives, including Project Aber and Project mBridge,' he added. Aber — a joint pilot with Saudi Arabia — tested how digital currencies could be used for cross-border settlements. mBridge expands that vision, bringing together central banks from Asia and the Middle East to build a shared platform for real-time international payments. 'Depending on the model adopted, a CBDC ecosystem can provide for end-users to hold accounts directly at the central bank, which would help promote financial inclusion.' But while CBDCs aim to rebuild the architecture of the financial system, companies like Visa are focused on immediate impact. That means expanding digital payment tools into sectors where cash still dominates — and making them accessible, reliable, and secure. 'SMEs are the backbone of the UAE's economy,' said Gutieva. 'The fact that 92 per cent of these businesses are cash-free indicates a strong readiness for a digital economy… that's where the shift happens — and that's how we help the UAE meet its cashless goals.' Getting to a cashless economy isn't about one breakthrough. It requires coordination across policy, infrastructure, and user behaviour — at every level of the system. And maybe, one morning in Deira, the fish will still be fresh, the shouting still loud, the scales still wet — but the payment? That might just be a tap.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store