Apis-Led Consortium Buys South African Payments Firm Sureswipe

(Bloomberg) -- A group of investors led by Apis Partners LLP and fintech investor Crossfin Technology Holdings bought a South African payments company to tap growing demand for card machines.

The value of the purchase of Sureswipe (Pty) Ltd. wasn’t disclosed in an emailed statement announcing the deal. Sureswipe will be consolidated under Crossfin Transactional Services along with Innervation Pan African Payments and Emerge Mobile’s iKhokha brand, according to the statement, and all three entities will operate independently.

The London-based private-equity firm, founded by former Abraaj Group Senior Partner Matteo Stefanel and ex-Deutsche Bank AG Managing Director Udayan Goyal, is financing the transaction from its Apis Growth Fund I, which makes investments in Africa and South Asia. CTS, which will have operations in seven African countries post the deal, services more than 25,000 clients, 50,000 card machines and about $5 billion in transaction value.

While about 46% of low-income earners in South Africa are banked, many tend to use cash in rural and peri-urban areas because merchants don’t accept cards, Sureswipe Managing Director Paul Kent said in the statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Vernon Wessels in Johannesburg at vwessels@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stefania Bianchi at sbianchi10@bloomberg.net, Renee Bonorchis

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