SA fintech startup Stitch completes $21m Series A round for expansion

Stitch, a South African API fintech startup, has raised a Series A funding round of US$21 million to expand its team, launch new product offerings, and enter new markets across the continent.

The Stitch API enables developers to quickly connect apps to financial accounts, allowing their users to share transaction histories and balances, confirm their identities, and initiate payments.

This tooling enables businesses to innovate by providing new and improved services such as personal finance, lending, insurance, payments, and wealth management. Stitch also enables fintechs to collaborate with traditional financial institutions in a more secure and compliant manner.

In February of last year, the startup announced a US$4 million seed round, which was increased to US$6 million in October, when it also expanded to Nigeria. It has now quickly moved on to Series A, raising US$21 million in a round led by The Spruce House Partnership, with participation from PayPal Ventures, TrueLayer, firstminute capital, The Raba Partnership, CRE Venture Capital, Village Global, Zinal Growth, and others, including Chipper Cash, Quovo, and Unit founders.

The funds will be used to significantly grow the Stitch team, launch new product offerings, and expand into new markets across the continent.

“We are incredibly fortunate to be supported by some of the best investors, founders, and builders in the global fintech space,” said Kiaan Pillay, co-founder and CEO of Stitch.

“They are collaborating closely with us to enable the boom in financial technology that we are seeing on the continent.” We’re seeing a record pace of development of new financial products among the hundreds of customers we work with, both large and small. Our goal is to make it easier for fast-growing fintech and embedded finance firms to launch increasingly innovative and tailored products, expand into new markets, and optimize their solutions – allowing them to grow even faster.”

Ben Stein, co-founder of The Spruce House Partnership, expressed excitement about Stitch’s future.

“We have been following African startups for many years.” “Our research showed that this is one of the most talented teams on the continent,” he said.

PayPal Ventures director Ashish Aggarwal stated that Stitch was constructing critical infrastructure to enable faster, easier, and more secure payments across Africa.

“We believe they will play a significant role in contributing to the overall growth of the African fintech space – and are excited to be investing at this critical juncture in their journey,” he said.