Stitch, a South African API fintech startup, has acquired a Series A investment round of US$21 million. PayPal Ventures, TrueLayer, firstminute capital, The Raba Partnership, CRE Venture Capital, Village Global, Zinal Growth, and others, including the founders of Chipper Cash, Quovo, and Unit, raised US$21 million in the round led by The Spruce House Partnership.
Stitch was launched in 2019 by Kiaan Pillay, Natalie Cuthbert, and Priyen Pillay to help businesses design, optimize, and expand financial solutions more rapidly and easily throughout Africa. Stitch provides data and payment solutions that significantly minimize the time and effort necessary for businesses to connect to their customers’ financial accounts and enable bank-to-bank payments without leaving the app interface.
The funds will be used to grow the Stitch team, develop new product lines, and expand into new areas throughout the continent. Stitch co-founder and CEO Kiaan Pillay said “We are incredibly fortunate to be supported by some of the best investors, founders and builders in the fintech space globally.
They are working closely with us to enable the boom we’re seeing in financial technology on the continent. Across the hundreds of customers we work with, big and small, we’re witnessing a record pace of development of new financial products. Our goal is to help fast-growing fintech and embedded finance companies more easily launch increasingly innovative and tailored products, expand into new markets and optimise their solutions – so they can grow even faster.”
Ben Stein, co-founder of The Spruce House Partnership, said he was excited to be a part of Stitch’s future.
“We have been following startups in Africa for many years. Our diligence was very clear that this is one of the most talented teams on the continent,” he said.
Ashish Aggarwal, director at PayPal Ventures, said Stitch was building critical infrastructure to enable faster, easier and more secure payments across Africa.
“We believe they will play a significant role in contributing to the overall growth of the fintech space in Africa – and are excited to be investing at this important moment in their journey,” he said.
