DPO Group has today announced the acquisition of PayFast, one of the largest payment processors in South Africa. The deal was executed through a mix of shares and cash, with the PayFast management team remaining key shareholders in DPO Group. Following the transaction, DPO Group will be providing services to over 100,000 merchants across 18 African markets.
PayFast has the broadest range of shopping cart integrations in Africa and its Instant EFT service provides consumers with a secure alternative for making online payments. The integration of PayFast into DPO’s services will increase the range of payment options available to DPO’s business customers, whilst providing a Pan-African solution to PayFast’s existing customer base. This merger will allow all of the Group’s services to be available on a single platform to both DPO Group and PayFast merchants significantly improving their capacity to do business not only across Africa but also worldwide.
PayFast which was founded in 2007, uses a facilitator model to process payments, providing a turn-key solution together with its partner banks, but providing a single point of contact for its clients. This provides a simple way for businesses to receive payments, saving them considerable time, effort and paperwork, whilst ensuring they have access to a broad range of payment types and bank-level security. With the largest network of shopping carts in Africa, including global e-commerce platform Shopify, the integration of PayFast into DPO’s services will enable merchants and, in turn, individual consumers to carry out transactions across 18 countries in Africa from a single platform.
Currently PayFast enables over 55,000 South African merchants to make quick, simple payments and grow their businesses through e-commerce opportunities. Through this acquisition, DPO Group aims to enable the growth of African businesses by offering its merchants a greater choice of payment services and providing them with all the necessary tools to make and receive payments effortlessly throughout Africa and internationally.
Offer Gat, Chairman and co-founder of DPO Group, had this to say, “PayFast is a natural fit for DPO Group and this deal strategically follows our acquisitions of PayGate, VCS, Paythru and SiD since 2016. This deal, which we believe is the largest acquisition by a PSP in Africa, reinforces our position as a leading PSP on the continent and is an important step forward in our strategic growth across Africa. The combination of DPO Group and PayFast will greatly increase the ability of merchants on our platform to do business with their clients both within and outside of Africa. Finally, it will allow DPO to continue to improve merchant services, allowing more merchants to transact more broadly at lower cost.”