Nairobi, October 19, 2017 – Direct Pay Online Group (DPO) has received a second investment of $5M from the UK based private equity fund, Apis Partners. This investment,which follows the initial $10M investment made last year, will be used to fuel DPO Group’s ambitious strategic plan which includes organic growth across Africa, strengthening the Group’s position through mergers and acquisitions, integrating the systems of all companies under the group, developing new payments technologies and the DumaPay app.
“The additional capital from Apis is a sign of the confidence that our partners have in us, and is a positive reinforcement of the good work we are doing with the business,” said DPO Group Chairman, Offer Gat. “DPO Group has achieved and exceeded the plans laid out in the first phase of the strategic plan. We have established a presence in 12 African countries namely Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Mauritius. We further plan to set up operations in Nigeria, Ghana, DRC and Mozambique by the end of 2017.”
According to the plan, DPO Group has also finalized the acquisition of five companies – Pay Gate and VCS in South Africa, VCS in Namibia and Botswana, and PayThru in South Africa, and are in the final stages of acquiring an additional company which will be announced later this month. The Group has further completed the first phase of integration between DPO and PayGate’s systems, and rolled out a new version of its next generation payments application, DumaPay, which is the first mobile application in the world that supports payments by cards and mobile money in one app .
Direct Pay Online Group CEO, Eran Feinstein said: “2017 has been an extremely successful year for us, and we are very proud of the strides we have made towards the achievement of our goals. This most recent capital injection will help to further the Group’s strategic plans in the region which will include the establishment of up to 26 branches across Africa, the acquisition of at least one additional company, and the continuation of our technological distribution across Africa.”
Apis Partners is a private equity asset manager that supports growth-stage financial services businesses in Africa and Asia by providing them catalytic growth equity capital.
Commenting on the investment, Apis Partners said: “We first invested in the DPO Group because we believed that they are a well-managed business providing quality financial services to African consumers. The Group has exceeded our expectations with the gains that they made in the last year and we believe that our additional investment will push DPO further in establishing itself as the leading payments processor in Africa.”
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About Direct Pay Online Group
The DPO Group is the leading payment service provider in Africa serving over 25,000 online merchants including over 50 airlines, thousands of hotels, restaurants, travel agents, tour operators and other players in the e-commerce sector. We accept all major credit cards, mobile money and e-wallets, and are a leader in technology, usability and security across the region. DPO uses the most sophisticated fraud prevention system for online payments in Africa and holds PCI DSS Level 1 Certification in 12 countries. The Group acquired PayGate South Africa in September 2016, VSC Namibia and Botswana, PayThru South Africa and VCS South Africa in 2017. For more information please visit www.directpay.online, www.paygate.co.za, website.vcs.co.za, or www.paythru.com.
About Apis Partners
Apis Partners (www.apis.pe) is a private equity asset manager that supports growth stage financial services businesses in Africa and Asia by providing them catalytic growth equity capital. Apis consists of a tried-and-tested team that has worked together for over 15 years, with specialized expertise in financial services and technology in growth markets. Apis’ operating network includes on-the-ground presence in 5 countries, a core team of 12 investment professionals and over 20 additional financial services sub-sector experts. Apis Partners is highly conscious of the developmental impact that the provision of growth capital for financial services in growth markets can achieve, and financial inclusion is a core tenet of Apis’ investment mandate.
Apis Partners is the manager of Apis Growth Fund I.
As a foreign private adviser, Apis Partners is exempt from registration under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.
