Peach Payments raises $31m Series A funding led by Apis Partners

By Leandra Monteiro

Apis Growth Fund II, a private equity fund managed by Apis Partners LLP, a UK-based asset manager, announced its proposed investment of €29 million (US$31 million) in Baobab Payments GmbH (trading as Peach Payments), a rapidly growing digital payment service provider that enables online payments in Africa.

“At Peach Payments, our mission is to enable African businesses and entrepreneurs to succeed in digital commerce. We want to be the infrastructure layer they build their business on. This was our original vision when we started, and is more relevant today than ever,” said Rahul Jain, Co-Founder and CEO, Peach Payments. “We’ve witnessed incredible growth in the past three years driven by fundamental forces and shifts in consumer and business adoption of digital commerce. Across market segments – from retail to digital learning, fitness, and even traditional financial services – we’ve onboarded new clients in almost every vertical. We’ve built a very strong team with exceptional operators and I am excited to partner with the team at Apis and take this business to where it deserves to be. The Apis team brings an incredible wealth of experience in fintech across the globe and we look forward to exploring exponential opportunities together with them.”

Completion of the investment is subject to the approval of the Competition Commission of South Africa and customary procedural and closing conditions. Peach Payments’ existing investors include UW Ventures, Launch Africa and AG Ventures.

“We continue to see significant opportunity in African payments as strong secular trends that are not related to annual business cycles – such as the conversion from cash to digital and in-store to online payments – persist across key markets. We have been impressed by the vision and execution of the management team as Peach Payments capitalises on these trends to bring more end-users into the digital economy, a key part of our drive to democratise access across the continent. We look forward to partnering with Peach Payments to expand its reach into new markets with innovative merchant solutions,” said Matteo Stefanel, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Apis Partners.

Apis Partners will leverage its deep networks and experience in scaling leading payment companies to support Peach Payments’ growth and geographic expansion. As an ESGI-native investor, Apis Partners’ sector expertise will help Peach Payments to maximise financial inclusion by enabling more merchants to participate and grow in today’s increasingly digital global economy.