South African digital payments service provider Peach Payments has acquired customer software development firm Operativa as a going concern, in the first such deal since it closed a US$31 million funding round, led by the Apis Growth Fund II, last year.
Founded in Cape Town in 2012, Peach Payments provides a complete toolkit to help businesses accept, manage and disburse payments through web and mobile. It is the second largest online payment gateway in South Africa, and has also expanded to Kenya and Mauritius.
Last year, the company raised a US$31 million Series A funding round from Apis Partners to accelerate its growth across the continent and grow its product offering, and it is now actioning this expansion with this acquisition, which will see the full Operativa team integrated into Peach Payments. Operativa co-founders Dayne Olivier and Ben Janecke taking on Principal Engineer positions.
Operativa has worked with Peach Payments since 2022, building and maintaining a number of the company’s payments systems and solutions that have paved the way for Peach Payments’ rapid expansion, including integrating additional payment methods such as Apple Pay, and onboarding new merchants and banking partners.
Bringing Operativa’s specialised skills and developers in-house allows Peach Payments to deliver on its growth strategy more quickly and efficiently, said said Rahul Jain, CEO and co-founder of Peach Payments.
“Operativa has been a trusted partner since the very beginning of our relationship, so the opportunity to acquire the business was not only a strategic business decision, but felt like a natural next step,” he said.
“The additional capital raised from the Apis Growth Fund II is allowing us to execute faster as we build new products and expand across Africa. Operativa has the people, skills, and intricate knowledge that comes from having worked with us on developing our systems, allowing us to hit the ground running together on some really exciting new projects.”
Operativa has serviced clients in the financial services, information security, e-commerce and cloud hosting industries. Following the acquisition, it is handing over operations for its other clients to ensure business continuity.
“We have always really enjoyed working with Peach Payments. We believe that the business has what it takes to become the undisputed payments leader in Africa. We see this acquisition as a call up to the winning team,” Olivier said.
