Lesaka Technologies, a NASDAQ-listed South African fintech firm, is set to close its $85 million acquisition of Adumo, a payment solutions startup, in October 2024. Following approval from shareholders and the South African Competition Commission, this move is poised to reshape the payment processing landscape across Southern Africa, offering Lesaka a wider reach across multiple countries, including Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Kenya. The acquisition, initially announced in May 2024, signals Lesaka’s ambition to deepen its consumer and SME merchant financing services, expanding its offerings to the hospitality sector. This will increase Lesaka's customer base to 1.7 million users and 119,000 merchants, up from the 1.5 million users it currently serves. “This acquisition allows us to offer integrated payments, processing, and reconciliation solutions to SME merchants in South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana,” a Lesaka spokesperson stated during an earnings call. The acquisition also enables Lesaka to enter the hospitality vertical, broadening its service portfolio beyond its core financial technology offerings. Lesaka’s push to expand regionally is evident in its recent moves. In February, the company acquired Touchsides, a point-of-sale (POS) provider, further enhancing its footprint in the Southern African region. Its suite of services already includes EasyPay, a payment processing provider, and Kazang, which focuses on POS solutions for merchants. With a market capitalization of $315 million, Lesaka’s acquisition spree reflects its aggressive strategy to build market share and compete with local rivals such as YOCO, which currently operates only in South Africa. Lesaka’s acquisition strategy shows no signs of slowing down. “We anticipate making more acquisitions fairly frequently,” Ali Mazanderani, Group Chair of Lesaka, revealed during the same earnings call.
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