Stitch, a South African API fintech powerhouse has announced the acquisition of Efficacy Payments, marking a major milestone in its expansion strategy and making it one of the first fintechs in South Africa to offer direct card clearing services both online and in person.

This move follows Stitch’s earlier acquisition of ExiPay in January 2025, which enabled the fintech to enter the in-person payments space. By integrating ExiPay, Stitch now offers a unified commerce solution that streamlines both online and in-person payment processing for businesses. This is particularly beneficial for companies operating in both online and offline retail environments. 

With Efficacy now part of the Stitch Group, the company is positioned as a Designated Clearing System Participant (DCSP), allowing it to offer end-to-end card acquiring services directly to merchants. This development gives Stitch full control over the card product lifecycle handling everything from technical integration to compliance, financial settlements, and operations.

Speaking on the acquisition of Efficacy Payments, President and Co-founder at Stitch Junaid Dadan said,

“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.”

“Stitch is now the gateway, the switch, and the acquirer,” the company stated. This means merchants can rely on a single provider for the entire card acquiring process, eliminating the need for intermediary banks or third-party switches.

• thanks to optimised messaging within card networks

• Due to reduced dependency on external parties, Stitch has greater autonomy to provide the latest products and features to its clients

• This offers merchants better visibility of their payments and associated fees through a real-time view of transactions, with fewer settlement and reconciliation issues.

•Cost savings: Merchants can avoid fees associated with multiple systems and gain operational efficiencies

Founded in 2016, Efficacy Payments became only the second fintech in South Africa to achieve DCSP status in 2021. With its integration into the Stitch Group, the combined entity is now equipped to deliver a comprehensive, modern payments infrastructure designed to meet the evolving needs of merchants across the region.

Founded in 2021, Stitch helps businesses accept and send online and in-person payments, streamline financial operations, and delight customers, reducing the barriers to seamless money movement.

The platform is designed to enable the most efficient and optimised money movement solutions, with a relentless team finding new ways to enable better, faster payments and reducing friction.

Stitch leverages the latest technologies and custom builds each solution alongside clients, so teams can integrate faster and optimise their payments stack for their particular use case.

Today, Stitch operates across the online and in-person payments space, including solutions designed for e-commerce platforms and tools for more effective finance management.

The fintech is backed by leading investment firms, as well as founders and early builders from some of the most successful fintechs in the world which include Ribbit Capital, 500 Global, RaliCap, Future Africa Fund, PayPal, amongst others.

Stitch’s mission is to enable businesses and consumers to more seamlessly access the financial system so they can move and manage money, better.