Direct Pay Online Group (DPO) has secured a second investment of $5 million (R70 million) from UK-based private equity fund Apis Partners.
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.
The payments and billing firm, which offers merchants multiple modes of payments, says the investment will be used to fuel DPO Group's strategic plan which includes growth across Africa, strengthening the group's position through a series of mergers and acquisitions and integrating the systems of all companies under the group.
The cash injection follows the initial $10 million (R140 million) investment made last year.
In 2016, DPO began its Southern African expansion by merging with PayGate, a South African online payments processor with over 15 years of experience and gateway integration to banks in 24 African markets including SA. In its continued efforts to expand its presence in SA, this year DPO finalised its acquisition of two local companies - payment start-up, PayThru SA , followed by the acquisition of credit card payment firm, Virtual Card Services SA.
Through the recent funding, the group says it will improve its payment service levels and technology for the SA market and the rest of the continent by implementing new solutions such as fraud prevention, risk management, quick response codes, mobile payment services, and more.
"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," says 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."
DPO has also finalised the acquisition of two companies around the continent - VCS in Namibia and Botswana, and is in the final stages of acquiring an additional company which will be announced later this year.
The group adds that it 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 Africa that supports multiple payment options.
DPO Group CEO Eran Feinstein explains: "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."
The DPO Group services over 25 000 online merchants in Africa, including over 50 airlines, thousands of hotels, restaurants, travel agents, tour operators and other players in the e-commerce sector.
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