NjiaPay, a payment orchestration startup, has raised $2.1m in seed funding to expand its operations across Africa. The round was led by European software-as-a-service investor Newion.
The capital injection comes just two months after the startup closed a $1.3m pre-seed round led by Cape Town-based HAVAÍC, bringing its total raised to $3.4m. The company plans to use the fresh capital to expand its engineering and commercial teams across its headquarters in Amsterdam and offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Unifying a fragmented market
Operating in African markets often forces merchants to integrate with a patchwork of disparate payment service providers (PSPs) — from mobile money operators like M-Pesa to traditional bank transfers and card processors.
Rather than acting as another PSP, NjiaPay operates as a neutral “coordination layer.” Through a single API, the startup intelligently routes transactions in real-time, selecting the best-performing provider for each specific transaction to reduce failure rates and consolidating the data into a single unified view.
A key feature for the South African market is the introduction of a Card Account Updater. While widely used in Europe for over a decade, the tool remains underutilised in South Africa. It automatically updates saved card details, addressing a major pain point for subscription businesses where roughly one in five transactions fail due to expired or replaced cards.
Talk360 origins and early traction
NjiaPay was founded in late 2024 by CEO Jonatan Allback and CPTO Roderick Simons. The company originated as an internal solution for the international calling app Talk360, where the founders struggled to manage the complexities of multiple African payment gateways.
“We understand the pain points of dealing with six different payment service providers across Africa, the challenges of maintaining all those integrations, and reconciling data from six different settlement reports,” Allback, who spent over eight years scaling operations at Dutch payment giant Adyen, told Launch Base Africa last year.
After implementing the NjiaPay infrastructure internally, Talk360 consolidated six PSP integrations into one, resulting in a 25% increase in checkout conversions in key markets.
NjiaPay subsequently spun out as an independent entity, though Talk360 retains a stake and remains a core client alongside brands like Anytime Fitness and Melon Mobile. The company currently employs around 20 people and processes transactions primarily in South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya.
Sizing up the competition
The African fintech sector is highly competitive, but NjiaPay believes its specific focus on mid-market enterprises offers a clear strategic advantage.
- The Competitors: Allback points to startups like MoneyHash (focused on North Africa and the Middle East), Moment (a pan-African joint venture between Rapyd and MultiChoice), and global player dLocal.
- The Differentiator: Most competitors target large, enterprise-level corporations. NjiaPay is deliberately targeting mid-market companies — those processing between R500,000 to R1,000,000 monthly — who still suffer from the complexity of managing multiple PSPs but lack the internal engineering resources to build their own orchestration layers.
“Despite rapid fintech innovation, payments across Africa remain fragmented and complex for merchants,” notes Mathijs de Wit, managing partner at Newion. “NjiaPay addresses this with a robust, enterprise-grade orchestration layer that unifies providers and optimises transaction performance.”
NjiaPay: At a glance
- Founded: Late 2024
- Founders: Jonatan Allback (CEO) and Roderick Simons (CPTO)
- Total Funding: $3.4m ($2.1m Seed, $1.3m Pre-seed)
- Key Investors: Newion, HAVAÍC, Renew Capital
- Headcount: ~20
- Locations: Amsterdam (HQ), Cape Town, Johannesburg