by TINTSWALO BALOYI
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – LESAKA Technologies, the South African fintech company, is to expand its Merchant division’s footprint in the local informal market with the acquisition of Touchsides from Heineken International.
Touchsides is a leading data analytics, insights and merchant services company.
It has an active base of over 10 000 point-of-services (POS) terminals across South Africa’s informal licensed taverns and processes more than R15 million transactions per day.
The business provides platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions to licensed tavern outlets, enabling the measurement of sales activity in real-time, management of stock levels and informing commercial decisions, such as pricing and promotional offers.
The licensed tavern market in South Africa consists of an estimated 45 000 establishments. It is a major vertical in the informal market and provides a real growth opportunity for Kazang, leading provider of cash and digital solutions to merchants in Southern Africa’s informal economies.
Steve Heilbron, Lesaka head of Merchant Division, said Touchsides is an exciting acquisition target and aligns perfectly with the strategy of adding scale and broadening the service offering in the Merchant division.
“With its installed network and deep data and insight capabilities, we expect to have a strong platform to better understand and further penetrate South Africa’s informal markets,” he said.
The acquisition, funded by internal cash generation of the Group, is expected to close in March 2024. It is subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
As part of the acquisition, Heineken’s operating business in South Africa has agreed to a long-term renewable contract with Touchsides for access to Touchsides’ tavern data and services.
– CAJ News