Stitch. Image Credits: Stitch
South African online payments infrastructure provider, Stitch, has acquired Netherlands-based Exipay Technologies B.V for an undisclosed sum. This purchase came with a view to expanding its enterprise payments offering to cover both online and in-person payments through a single, unified platform.
Exipay was founded by South African entrepreneurs Willem Büchner and Derek Keats in 2022 with the aim of facilitating in-person payments through point-of-sale (POS) terminals for traditional stores. The company boasted of processing R2 million ($106,000) in daily transactions in the year 2023. Earlier in 2025, the payments infrastructure startup also landed a €5.4 million in private funding from Izwe Africa, a fintech startup providing credit to small businesses across Ghana, Kenya, and Zambia.
On the other hand, Stitch came into being in 2019 when co-founders Junaid Dadan and Kiaan Pillay kicked off their ambition to become a major pan-African payments platform. Stitch is a payments infrastructure company that helps businesses scale faster, and operate more efficiently. The Stitch payments API and tools reduce the effort required for businesses across sectors to connect to the financial system and deliver delightful experiences for their users. The company has expanded its operations into Nigeria and has previously articulated plans for further expansion into Kenya, Ghana, and Egypt.
The acquisition will empower Stitch to broaden its product portfolio, combining online and in-person payments into a single platform. This integrated approach will help simplify payment tracking for large enterprise clients across multiple channels.
“We’re excited to bring the ExiPay solution into the Stitch payments suite, enabling enterprise merchants to offer a seamless and reliable payments experience no matter where their customers choose to shop, and manage all their transactions in one place. ExiPay has built a strong solution that, combined with our existing online payments platform, will allow us to serve our clients from a much more holistic perspective, supporting them across every payments touchpoint they have with their customers,” said Stitch co-founder and president Junaid Dadan.
Stitch CEO Kiaan Pillay emphasized the growing demand for such integrated solutions within the South African retail market, where a significant divide persists between online and traditional payment systems.
Exipay’s six-person team has been integrated into Stitch’s operations, with the service rebranded as “Stitch In-person payments.” Stitch plans to market this new offering to its existing client base, which includes prominent companies such as Bash, MTN, Cell C, and MultiChoice
.“The in-person payments space has not been disrupted for enterprises. Many players are addressing this for smaller businesses, but no one is tackling this for enterprises; it was the big reason we wanted to do this.” Mr. Pillay commented.
Acquiring Exipay, instead of partnering with established in-person payment providers, reflects the company’s desire to maintain control of its technology stack. Mr. Pillay mentioned that developing a similar solution internally would have required 18 to 24 months, potentially delaying the company’s broader strategy of offering a unified payment platform.
At the time of acquisition, ExiPay held existing contracts with several enterprise clients and PSPs operating in South Africa and other African markets, including omnichannel retail brand Bash. With this acquisition, Stitch will serve Bash for both their online and in-person payments needs, and will continue serving other existing ExiPay clients.
