Denis Opudo
Payment24 is a South African based fleet fuel management and mobile payment app. Payment24 is aggressively making inroads across pan-Africa and the United States (US). It has made inroads into the US by signing many blue chip global customers. But according to Nolan Daniel and Shadab Rahil, joint CEO’s of Payment24, achieving international recognition which is the primary aim of many SA based startups is not a walk in the park.
Rahil said that the company’s ambition was to go international from the start. He added that they never considered themselves as startups. To achieve the global status, they decided to launch with a proper business model, big playbook, and road plan. The three factors helped the business to grow. Their primary strategic focus according to Rahil forced the company to target regions where the market-fit was right only. It also targeted where reliable local networks could be put up.
Daniel said that doing business across Africa comes with a lot of challenges. He added that people have to take their time about the projects they want to engage in. According to him, some huge projects across various countries are in a position to kill a company with time. This is because they tend to take a lot of time, therefore, shifting one’s focus away from their company’s strategic growth plans. Expansion of business across pan-Africa is also challenging. This is as far as red tape, and cross-border payments are concerned. Payment24 has gone against all the odds to succeed. The company is now expanding into Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Botswana. Its selection supported the drastic growth of the firm among the 36 participants of global 500 Start-ups Global Seed Accelerator program in San Francisco in 2017.
Daniel says that the event gave the company an opportunity to make inroads in the North American markets. It also helped them to research to confirm that their products fit in the US market. Payment24 product fit for the US groundbreaking fuel management and payment solutions mobile app looks promising. The joint CEOs said that there is a significant market in the US for the product to get into. The two aims to be among the top three players in Africa in the fuel payment sector in the next few years to come.
