Lipa Payments, a South African-based fintech start-up, has secured a R10-million ($659 thousand) investment from Empowerment Capital’s Imvelo Ventures, which is backed by Capitec Bank SA. Lipa Payments was one of the finalists in Capitec Bank’s Life 2.0 Hackathon in 2020. The fintech is bringing the “Tap to Pay” experience to Africa’s informal sectors with its software solution that enables merchants to accept contactless payments directly from a mobile phone. Developed in 2019 by fintech entrepreneurs Thando Hlongwane and Roger Bukuru, the Lipa Payments solution partners with banks and fintech to enable affordable, accessible, and fast payments for merchants, even if they have low-end mobile phones. It’s also safer and more hygienic than dealing in cash.
A key part of our digital strategy is to partner with FinTech companies to accelerate the delivery of our offer and to create unique opportunities through partnerships. Lipa Payments was selected as one such investment through our Imvelo venture capital fund. The Lipa Payment’s duo plans to roll-out their Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution across South Africa and Nigeria in 2022. StatsSA’s Q4 2020 Quarterly Labour Force Survey shows that around 2.5 million South Africans are part of the informal economy (non-agricultural) and the number of people in informal employment has increased since 2013. Whether selling goods and services from a taxi rank, a spaza shop or a dirt road in a rural village, Lipa’s digital solution for merchants of the informal economy allows them to be financially included in the digital economy of the future.