Peach Payments was launched in 2013 by Rahul Jain and Andreas Demleitner, a payment processor focusing on the African continent and other emerging markets.
The startup offers payment solutions to businesses for their websites and mobile apps, thus enabling them to accept payments from customers across the globe.
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Peach Payments can easily integrate with leading e-commerce platforms like Wix, WooCommerce, Shopify, PrestaShop and Magento, and their modern API allows for custom integrations.
They currently enable both enterprise and SME e-commerce in South Africa, Mauritius and Kenya, with plans to expand to more African countries.
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Background
To understand the story of Peach Payments more clearly, let’s take it back to 2009, when Rahul Jain and Andreas Demleitner met by chance as immigrants in South Africa, they were unsure if they would remain – or if whether their paths would again cross.
From the get-go, Rahul and Andreas knew they had complementary traits. Two years later, they decided to reunite once again in Cape Town under the banner of Peach Payments – with a goal of revolutionising the online payment space in SA and beyond.
The startup moved through the Google Umbono accelerator programme a year later, where they managed to raise €50 000 after participation. The founders then set their sights on identifying and coming up with solutions to problems faced by online merchants.
They prioritised values of trust, integrity, and customer-centricity from day one of Peach Payments, and to this present day, those values are still the backbone of the business.
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Seed round goes left….
According to Rahul, the toughest situation they faced was during the startup’s earlier days when their seed-founding round collapsed in the last minute.
This was a huge a setback as they desperately needed the funds. It took them another year to raise the money.
During that period, they had their backs against the wall. They were funding the business with their savings, paying salaries and managing proceedings.
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It was truly a roller-coaster, some weeks they’d be out of business, while other weeks showed hope. They only overcame this challenges by putting their heads down and focusing on growing their sales and revenues.
In this way, they started to solve the cash crunch, little by little. It was a big challenge mentally to keep themselves motivated. It was those small victories that really helped them overcome the situation.
The company keeps customers and users at the centre of everything they do, allowing traders to focus on what they do best, while making sure their payments needs are always fulfilled.
Over the years, they’ve taken immense satisfaction from seeing seminal brands like Netflorist, SweepSouth, Pargo, WumDrop, Dineplan and Petheaven scale effectively using their various payment solutions.
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Growing Demand
The demand for Peach Payments’ services keeps growing on a daily basis.
In 2020, the company was servicing between 1500 and 2000 merchants — including three of South Africa’s four big retail groups — and was signing 200 – 300 new traders every week.
The covid-19 pandemic came in handy for the fintech startup, as they were able to close sales from traders who have been mulling for the longest time, on whether to go with Peach Payments or not.
To keep up with the demand, the startup made several hires and now has over 40 employees. The staff are working during weekdays, weekends and even in the evenings to ensure the demands are met.
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Expansion
Peach Payments has already expanded into Mauritius and Kenya, and has been working on scaling its presence to other African countries, more especially after securing a R10 million+ investment in 2020, from a round led by UW Ventures.
In 2021, after outperforming expections, Peach Payments netted an additional investment in another round of funding, once again led by UW Ventures in partnership with Allan Gray.
With continuous learning and iterations to their product, Peach Payments managed to pioneer fintech firsts for SA – like one click payments, subscription models, mobile integration and gig-economy payment solutions.
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According to Rahul, what really amazes him is the fact that Peach Payments is now a recognised player in the payments space of Africa.
When they launched the company, he would spend the first 5 to 10 minutes explaining who they were, their history, what the company was all about.
……but fast forward 9 years later, when he talks to prospective clients, or even random strangers, they always mention something about Peach Payments, which amazes him each time.
Word-of-mouth marketing
The team haven’t spent any money on marketing, they focused heavily on customer service. The satisfied customers readily spread Peach Payments’ services by word of mouth.
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R1 billion….
Their vision is to deliver delightful experiences for traders and users, and be the number 1 payments partner of choice in Africa.
Today, the startup seamlessly processes over R1 billion a month for their merchants. And although most often than not, online shoppers don’t usually realise they’re using Peach Payments’ products, the founders are immensely proud of the journey they’ve walked in simplifying payments in the African continent.