South African fintech firm Stitch Group has acquired digital payments firm Efficacy Payments for an undisclosed sum.  

Launched in 2016, Efficacy was designated a clearing system participant in 2021, becoming the second fintech in the country to achieve this status. 

The acquisition enables Efficacy to provide card acquiring services directly to merchants as a Designated Clearing System Participant (DCSP).  

This status allows direct provision of card acquiring services to merchants, bypassing the traditional need for intermediary financial institutions. 

Additionally, Stitch Group can now offer merchants a card product, managing the full lifecycle of card transactions and it includes direct connections to major card networks such as Visa and Mastercard. 

It provides enterprise merchants with potential improvements in transaction conversion rates due to optimised communication with card networks.  

Stitch Group, now among the few South African fintechs offering direct card clearing for both online and in-person transactions, gains full control over the end-to-end card product lifecycle. This allows merchants to work with a single provider handling technical, compliance, financial, and operational requirements. 

Stitch president and co-founder Junaid Dadan said: “We’re excited to welcome the Efficacy team into the Stitch Group and offer this critical solution to the merchants we work with.  

“Card processing is an essential requirement for businesses in South Africa, and we’ve seen a lot of room for improvement when it comes to conversion, recon capabilities and access to the latest technology. We’re excited to see the impact this will have on the way our merchants collect card payments from their customers.” 

This acquisition follows Stitch Group’s purchase of ExiPay, which marked the company’s entry into the in-person payments arena earlier in the year.