Stitch Group, has acquired digital payments firm Efficacy to enable stitch to offer direct card clearing services in the market.

The acquisition of Efficacy Payments is the second major strategic acquisition following acquisition of ExiPay earlier this year, which enabled us to enter the in-person payments space.

“Our acquisition of Efficacy enables us to offer card acquiring services directly to merchants as a Designated Clearing System Participant (DCSP), and provide more seamless and cost-effective transactions,” announced the firm in a statement. “By bringing Efficacy within the Stitch group, Stitch has become one of the first fintechs in South Africa to offer direct card clearing both online and in-person, underscoring our commitment to serving clients across more of their payments needs.”

With this deal, Stitch becomes the gateway, switch and the acquirer and is directly connected to Visa and Mastercard.

“We’re excited to welcome the Efficacy team into the Stitch Group and offer this critical solution to the merchants we work with. Card processing is an essential requirement for businesses in South Africa, and we’ve seen a lot of room for improvement when it comes to conversion, recon capabilities and access to the latest technology. We’re excited to see the impact this will have on the way our merchants collect card payments from their customers.” said Junaid Dadan, President and Co-founder at Stitch.

Efficacy Payments was launched in 2016, and it was designated as a clearing system participant in 2021, as the second fintech in South Africa to achieve this.

The deal will allow Stitch to have better conversion, faster access to new products and features due to a reduction in bank and third party dependencies and delays, real time reporting and reconciliation with custom reporting allowing for cost savings due to lower fees by working with one provider.

Stitch aims to enable businesses and consumers to more seamlessly access the financial system so they can move and manage money, better. It helps businesses accept and send online and in-person payments, streamline financial operations and delight customers – reducing the barriers to seamless money movement.

Reading This Now 71