{"id":851346,"date":"2026-02-19T13:22:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T11:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=851346"},"modified":"2026-02-19T13:23:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T11:23:30","slug":"new-battleground-in-south-africa-with-nedbank-and-capitec-spending-billions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/851346\/new-battleground-in-south-africa-with-nedbank-and-capitec-spending-billions\/","title":{"rendered":"New battleground in South Africa – with Nedbank and Capitec spending billions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa’s payments industry is undergoing a significant transformation, with combined acquisitions reaching the billions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While many South Africans still use cash, digital payments are being increasingly adopted across the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The growing adoption has seen several major JSE-listed companies moving to acquire payment service providers, including Nedbank and Capitec. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first and largest transaction saw Nedbank acquire iKhokha in an all-cash deal worth R1.65 billion in August last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deal forms part of Nedbank’s plan to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through digital innovation and inclusive financial services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

iKhokha has grown rapidly since its founding in 2012 and offers SME cash advances and payment and business management tools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The acquisition has made iKhokha a wholly owned subsidiary of Nedbank, while it continues to operate under its own brand and leadership team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa’s largest bank by market cap and customers, Capitec, then announced the acquisition of Walletdoc in a deal valued at up to R400 million in December 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walletdoc was founded in 2015 and provides payment gateway services for merchants, including in-app payments, digital wallets, Instant EFT, and other financial services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitec said that the acquisition forms part of its strategy to reduce payment costs and expand access to digital financial services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The purchase consideration for Walletfic comprises a cash payment of R300 million, subject to customary adjustments upon closing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also a deferred earnout of R100 million, which is linked to the Capitec share price and payable in cash over three years. The earnout is subject to the achievement of certain milestones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While a smaller player than Capitec and Nedbank, JSE-listed payments provider Araxi<\/a> also announced a deal in which it will acquire fellow payments provider Pay@ in a deal valued at R1 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pay@ was founded in 2007 and offers scalable payment services for B2B and B2C consumers, with Araxi and Pay@ looking for growth through geographic and service expansion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The R1 billion deal to acquire Pay@ comprises R200 million in cash and R800 million in senior debt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also goes the other way <\/h2>\n\n\n
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While two of South Africa’s largest banks have acquired payment service providers, the opposite has also occurred: Lesaka acquired Bank Zero in a deal valued at over R1 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bank Zero is an app-only digital bank that provides personal and business banking services. It was founded in 2018 by former FNB executives Michael Jordaan and Yatin Narsai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lesaka, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of US-incorporated Lesaka Technologies, also provides a host of fintech products and services, including payment services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July, Lesaka announced a deal to acquire Bank Zero for R1.1 billion. The main driver of the deal was Lesaka’s aim to cross-sell banking services to its existing customer base in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deal will primarily consist of a host of newly issued Lesaka shares and up to R91 million in cash. Bank Zero’s shareholders will then own roughly 12% of Lesaka’s fully diluted shares. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As per the deal, Jordaan will join the Lesaka board, and Narsai will join Lesaka’s executive leadership team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bank Zero executive’s shareholding in Lesaka will be subject to lock-up agreements ranging from 18 to 36 months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has been growing corporate activity across South Africa, with financial service providers buying companies that provide payment services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":851382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[12875,1798,14608,24787,1799,12268],"class_list":["post-851346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-bank-zero","tag-capitec","tag-ikhokha","tag-lesaka","tag-nedbank","tag-walletdoc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851346"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":851510,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851346\/revisions\/851510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}