South African fintech startup Yoco has announced a collaboration with Mastercard that will roll out 15,000 mobile point of sale (mPOS) devices to small and medium-sized businesses by the end of the year.
To start accepting card payments, business owners simply connect the Yoco card reader to their Android or iOS smartphones or tablets, with this hardware paired with a comprehensive PoS application and business intelligence portal to give businesses real-time access to sales insights and analytics.
“Small and medium businesses employ over 60 per cent of the labour force in South Africa, yet they lack the basic tools necessary to accept electronic payments and run their businesses effectively,” said Katlego Maphai, chief executive officer (CEO) of Yoco.
“Through this partnership, we will empower even more small businesses that previously did not accept card payments, while growing the market and making a contribution to our economy.”
According to Mastercard, small and medium-sized merchants that have never accepted card payments are turning to mPOS solutions to expand their customer base and increase sales.
“While the number of South Africans with access to formal banking products has grown substantially over the last few years, the number of card acceptance locations – especially at small businesses – has not grown in parallel,” said Mark Elliott, division president for Mastercard Southern Africa.
“Solutions like Yoco enable these small and medium businesses to respond to their customers’ increasing desire to pay for goods and services with payment cards rather than cash, which is higher risk, without making large upfront investments in infrastructure or facing high transaction costs.”
Since launching its mobile card acceptance offering in 2015, Yoco has grown its base to over 14,500 merchants and is now adding over 1,200 new merchants every month.
