Stitch buys Efficacy to take full control of card payments in South Africa

South African fintech startup Stitch has acquired Efficacy Payments, a 9-year-old card payments startup with direct access to the national clearing system. The deal puts Stitch in full control of the card processing stack. It now acts as gateway, switch, and acquirer. For merchants, this means faster reconciliation, fewer failed transactions, and one provider to manage card payments—online or in-store.

The move makes Stitch one of the first local fintechs to offer end-to-end acquiring without a bank or third-party processor. It is now directly connected to Visa and Mastercard. That cuts out extra failure points and lets Stitch roll out features faster and cheaper.

“Card processing is an essential requirement for businesses in South Africa,” said Stitch co-founder and president Junaid Dadan. “We’re excited to see the impact this will have on the way our merchants collect card payments.”

This is Stitch’s second major acquisition. Back in January, it bought ExiPay to expand into in-person payments. That deal added POS capability. Now with Efficacy, it’s taking full control of the backend.

Stitch has been expanding fast. It raised $55 million in a Series B round three months ago, bringing its total funding to $107 million since 2021. Backers include QED Investors, PayPal Ventures, Ribbit Capital—and even Trevor Noah.

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It was one of the first fintechs in South Africa licensed as a Designated Clearing System Participant (DCSP), allowing it to process cards directly. Stitch will now absorb that role into its wider infrastructure.

This deal means Stitch now competes not just with local PSPs like Payfast or Peach Payments—but with traditional acquiring banks too. And it joins a global wave of fintechs bringing card infrastructure in-house.

South Africa’s card payments market is projected to hit R2.9 trillion ($159 billion) in 2025, according to GlobalData. With more digital payments and demand for better checkout experiences, Stitch wants to be the go-to processor.

According to Stitch, direct integration will enable faster onboarding, better uptime, and real-time reporting. For enterprise clients managing multiple sales channels, this kind of end-to-end support is increasingly essential.

Now with full acquiring rights, Stitch is no longer just an API infrastructure provider—it’s a modern payments backbone for Africa’s digital economy.