{"id":859108,"date":"2026-05-04T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=859108"},"modified":"2026-05-05T14:52:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T12:52:42","slug":"end-of-an-era-for-company-in-south-africa-founded-by-a-springbok-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/859108\/end-of-an-era-for-company-in-south-africa-founded-by-a-springbok-legend\/","title":{"rendered":"Big shift for South African company founded by a Springbok legend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Paymenow, a company co-founded by Springbok legend Bryan Habana, is merging with PayCurve as the young company enters a key growth stage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of his over 100 Springbok caps, Habana is the nation’s leading try scorer and was part of the 2007 World Cup-winning team. He is now an accomplished businessman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paymenow is the largest earned wages access and employee financial wellness platform on the continent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company was founded in 2019 by Habana, who now serves as Chief Client Officer; CEO Deon Nobrega; CTO Willem Van Zyl; and CDO Gerbrand Potgieter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Stellenbosch-based company now serves over 750,000 employees in South Africa, Namibia, Zambia and Pakistan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company’s partners include Telkom, Openserve, BCX, TFG, Boxer, Bidvest, Clicks, Cotton On, Food Lover’s Market, Netcare, Makro, Pep, We Buy Cars, PnA, Sun International, Virgin Active and many more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The platform allows employees access to their earned wages before payday, which helps them avoid payday lenders. It also offers financial education, vouchers for essential items and savings accounts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company is now merging with Johannesburg-based PayCurve, which is known for its personalised, data-led approach to improving employee financial wellbeing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PayCurve, which was founded in 2020, uses data to identify financially distressed employees before the crisis point, with services ranging from debt rehabilitation journeys to gamified money coaching. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two companies will now merge and operate under the Paymenow brand, creating South Africa\u2019s first fully integrated employee financial wellness platform. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMillions of working South Africans face two realities at once: they run short of cash before payday, and they carry debt they cannot sustainably service,\u201d said Deon Nobrega, CEO and co-founder of Paymenow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPayCurve has built a capability no one else in the market has \u2014 identifying financially vulnerable employees early and helping them recover.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By bringing that into Paymenow, Nobrega said the merged company can now guide an employee from their first wage advance to becoming debt-free and building savings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good for employers <\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Deon Nobrega, CEO of Paymenow, and Tamir Sacks, CEO of PayCurve<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

For employers, the new platform will offer a wide array of products to address workforce financial stress, from month-end cash flow pressure to chronic over-indebtedness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These issues are some of the key drivers of absenteeism, reduced productivity, and staff turnover. The services are thus designed to promote workforce resilience, improve retention and enhance employee wellbeing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research by 60 Decibels from Paymenow\u2019s user base found that 94% of users report an improved quality of life, with three in four saying that they do not rely on payday lenders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEarned wage access is powerful, but it works best when combined with savings, education and debt recovery support,\u201d said Tamir Sacks, co-founder and CEO of PayCurve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe missing piece in the market has been proactive debt intervention. Joining Paymenow means we can now scale that mission nationally and help transform employee wellbeing across South Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Existing clients and employees of both businesses are unaffected by the integration, and users can now access a larger suite of tools powered by the combined technology and product capabilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The combined team will have close to 100 employees, and the merger will also look to boost product and execution capacity at a pivotal growth stage for the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The combined Paymenow is facing increasing competition from payroll providers, banks and fintech entrants. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paymenow, which was co-founded by Springbok legend Bryan Habana, has merged with fellow fintech PayCurve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":859142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[25328,21437],"class_list":["post-859108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-paycurve","tag-paymenow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859108","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=859108"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":859329,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859108\/revisions\/859329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}