Grace Ashiru
Adumo, a prominent South African fintech company, has been acquired by Lesaka for ZAR1.59 billion (US$85.9 million), pending shareholder and regulatory approvals.
Boasting over 23,000 active merchants, Adumo is South Africa’s largest independent payments processor. It supports merchants with services such as card acquisition, integrated payments, and reconciliation. Since receiving a US$15 million investment from the IFC in 2021, Adumo has been on an acquisition spree, purchasing SwitchPay, WireCard, GAAP, SureSwipe, iKhokha, and various other smaller payment startups.
Lesaka, another South African fintech company known for leveraging its unique banking and payment technologies to offer superior financial services solutions to Southern African merchants and customers, has now completed this acquisition.
Lesaka will pay the purchase price of ZAR1.59 billion (US$85.9 million) in cash and by issuing 17,279,803 shares of Lesaka common stock to Adumo’s current ultimate owners. The ultimate shareholders of Adumo include IFC, Adumo management, African Rainbow Capital, the largest stakeholder of Crossfin Holdings, and Apis Growth vehicle I, a private equity vehicle managed by Apis Partners LLP.
Adumo’s primary business activities are card acquiring, integrated payments, and reconciliation services. It serves around 23,000 active merchants and processes approximately ZAR24 billion (US$1.3 billion) in annual throughput. The company’s corporate card services support over 245,000 cardholders, offering payroll, incentives, rewards, and spending management. Adumo ISV, also known as GAAP, is the leading provider of POS and Software-as-a-Service solutions to the hospitality industry in Southern Africa.
Paul Kent, the co-founder and CEO of Adumo, shared his enthusiasm about partnering with the Lesaka group and contributing to their ongoing success.
“We are excited to bring the Adumo team into the Group and to have Adumo CEO Paul Kent join our executive leadership team. Adumo’s customer base gives us access to over 245,000 consumers and to payment technologies that we can integrate into our current operations. The impending acquisition of Adumo marks another major milestone for Lesaka as we strive to build the leading fintech platform in Southern Africa,” said Lincoln Mali, CEO of Lesaka Southern Africa.
Kent added, “Given our respective strengths and technology offerings, this collaboration is a natural fit, and our combined efforts will greatly enhance the customer value proposition.”
Following the acquisition, Lesaka’s ecosystem will now support 119,000 merchants and 1.7 million active customers, processing over ZAR250 billion in annual throughput. The organization will employ more than 3,300 people across five nations: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and Kenya.
According to the company, the acquisition has strengthened its role as the “natural consolidator” of fintech in Southern Africa, enhancing its advantages in both the merchant and consumer markets.
