Adumo

Invested July 3, 2018. Partial exit November 2022

Profile

Adumo is the largest independent card-acquiring company in South Africa. The adumo platform has over 25,000 active clients and processes in excess of US$ 5.0bn in transactions annually. Adumo brings together three premium South African payment service providers. These are Sureswipe, Innervation Pan African Payments and Emerge Mobile under the brand iKhokha. Adumo is committed to delivering a comprehensive suite of payments and value-added solutions to a broad spectrum of merchants operating across South Africa.

Website adumo.com

Headquarters

Johannesburg, South Africa

Region

Africa

Sector

Payments

Sub-sector

Acquiring

Fund

Apis Growth Fund I

Which are the biggest opportunities for the adumo business?

South Africa is in a relatively unique position when compared to other emerging markets. The economic population is well banked, with circa 80 Million cards in circulation, however, payment acceptance is not widely pervasive with an estimated 3 out 10 merchants only accepting cash. This creates a huge opportunity for payment acceptance and specifically adumo, who is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this opportunity.

The creation of CTS has brought together 3 of South Africa’s most successful Payment Service Providers, each business targets different customer segments with payment services suited to their specific customers’ requirements.
Over and above the operational synergies that are usually extracted from bringing companies together, all 3 businesses are on a high growth curve and are well-positioned to continue on this trajectory. Growth is occurring on two fronts; either attracting new merchants who are accepting card payments for the first time, or switching existing established businesses from incumbent banks.

What is it like to work with Apis?

Our interaction with Apis goes back a few years, building a relationship before any investment discussion started. So when the existing shareholders were looking for an exit Apis was immediately listed as a potential investor. As a management shareholder team, our criteria for new investors consisted of 3 key requirements:

  • We were looking for investors with market knowledge both locally and internationally
  • Investors that supported our vision for the company and would continue to invest behind the strategy
  • We want to work with a team of people who were well aligned to our culture and to us as individuals

We can confidently say that Apis ticked all the boxes.

“Adumo provides payment and commerce solutions to thousands of businesses in sub-Saharan Africa. We are a catalyst for business growth. Partnering with Apis has brough us great expertise and insights into current as well as future fintech trends. They have an amazing international network and are active as investors, challenging executive teams to think differently and think big!”

— Paul Kent, CEO, Adumo