South African based payments enabler, Tutuka, announced that Apis Partners has acquired a majority stake in Tutuka. Apis acquired their stake from Paycorp, who invested in Tutuka in 2015, and helped the company grow their international presence and more than triple in size since their initial investment.
Tutuka is a global payments enabler, focused mainly on emerging markets. With its headquarters in Johannesburg, Tutuka currently operating in 19 countries. It also has offices in Dubai and Bangkok. It is well known for its unique processor plus model which enables fintechs, mobile wallets, apps and banks across emerging markets to easily issue Mastercard and Visa payment products, such as physical or virtual cards that are linked to the values in their customers’ wallets or accounts.
Matteo Stefanel, Apis Partners’ Managing Partner and Co-Founder, highlighted that “the mobile wallet ecosystem is forecast to grow at over 45% p.a. through to 2021, and we believe that Tutuka is extremely well positioned to capitalise on this growth while delivering significant value for these ecosystem owners.”
“We are proud to have Apis as investors,” said Rowan Brewer, CEO of Tutuka. “Emerging markets is where the growth and innovation in financial services is happening and Apis will add to Tutuka’s ability to enable fintechs, mobile wallets, apps and banks to easily issue Mastercard and Visa cards and payment products to their customers. Often this is the very first time these customers are able to access the millions of POS terminals, ATMS and e-commerce sites that accept Mastercard and Visa. That is true financial inclusion, it’s where the fastest growth will be in the future, and that is why as part of this deal, management and staff have kept a substantial stake in Tutuka.”
