Peach Payments, a 13-year-old South African payment gateway, has acquired PayDunya, a payment gateway in Francophone West Africa. This marks a strategic expansion into six new markets for Peach Payments.
The PayDunya acquisition positions Peach Payments to serve both UEMOA (West African Economic and Monetary Union) and, in time, CEMAC (Central African Economic and Monetary Community) countries—unlocking access to a market of over 450 million people.
Founded in 2015 by Aziz Yérima and co-founders Youma Fall, Christian Palouki, and Honoré Hounwanou, PayDunya has quietly become one of the region’s fintech success stories. Operating in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Mali, PayDunya supports online and mobile payments, and bulk disbursements. It works with clients like Jeune Afrique, VFS Global, and SUNU Assurances.
The founders of PayDunya bootstrapped the company with €20,000 ($22,000) before turning it into a profitable business. Today, PayDunya employs over 40 people, serves more than 4,000 B2B clients, and processes 70,000 transactions daily.
See also: The “Stripe of Francophone Africa”
Peach Payments’ CEO Rahul Jain described the acquisition as a natural next step following its €29M / $31 million Series A in late 2023, led by Apis Growth Fund II.
“Peach Payments’ success wasn’t in raising the Series A Funding round. Success is in doing the hard work and expanding the business by putting that money to use. We’ve grown a lot and we are rapidly expanding into more countries,” says Jain.
It’s the company’s third deal in under a year, following acquisitions of in-store payments tech from Exipay (February 2024) and customer software firm Operativa (June 2024).
Jain adds, “Peach Payments’ growth strategy is founded on three pillars: organically growing its existing market share, launching new products and services for merchants and shoppers, and using mergers and acquisitions (M&As) to facilitate growth. The PayDunya acquisition supports our expansion into West Africa, and bolsters what we are doing for cross border and international merchants.”
The acquisition expands Peach’s coverage to 12 African countries, further advancing its vision of a pan-African payment ecosystem. With e-commerce in West Africa projected to reach $15.33 billion by 2029, the timing seems apt.
PayDunya’s Yérima, who also heads the Senegalese Fintech Association (Sen Fintech), added, “We are thrilled to join forces with Peach Payments, a company that shares our vision of accelerating Africa’s digital transformation through innovative financial solutions. Together, we are poised to create a seamless, inclusive, and robust payment ecosystem that empowers African businesses to thrive in the digital economy,” says Yérima.
As smartphone adoption and mobile money usage continue to rise in the region, this deal could be pivotal—not just for Peach and PayDunya, but for Africa’s broader digital commerce landscape.
