Shoprite Group, Africa’s biggest grocer by sales, has completed the acquisition of a 51 per cent controlling stake in R&A Cellular, a Mpumalanga-based fintech company that provides point-of-sale services to informal retailers across South Africa.
The transaction, which closed on August 14, 2026, marks the retailer’s most significant push into financial services for the informal economy — a market that informal economy expert GG Alcock has estimated to be worth between R750 billion and R1 trillion. Standard Bank’s Business and Commercial Banking division put the value of the township economy at about R900 billion in its inaugural Township Informal Economy Report in 2025.
R&A Cellular operates a device network that allows spaza shop owners and other informal merchants to sell prepaid airtime, electricity vouchers, entertainment products and accept card-based payments. The company also supplies prepaid products on a wholesale basis to other distributors.
The purchase price was not disclosed. Shoprite chief executive Pieter Engelbrecht told investors the acquisition was finalised after the group’s financial year-end on June 28, meaning its financial impact was not quantified in the recently published results.
“We continue to invest selectively in adjacent growth markets where specialist expertise and speed-to-market offer a clear advantage,” Engelbrecht said. He described the R&A Cellular deal and a separate agreement to acquire coffee chain Vida e Caffè as “relatively small but strategic”.
The Competition Tribunal granted unconditional approval for the merger between Shoprite Financial Services and R&A Cellular in April.
Strategic rationale
For Shoprite, the acquisition represents a natural extension of its Money Market financial services platform, which already offers digital transaction accounts, low-cost remittances and consumer credit. The group now plans to scale R&A Cellular’s installed device base nationally while folding its own financial services products into the platform’s catalogue.
Jean Olivier, general manager of financial services at Shoprite, said R&A Cellular had “built a sound business with a strong management team and a platform that is well regarded in the market”.
Rui Campos, founder and chief executive of R&A Cellular, described the partnership as a “transformational moment” for his company.
The acquisition builds on an existing commercial relationship: R&A Cellular already enabled the sale of Shoprite vouchers through its point-of-sale devices.
Shoprite’s broader financial performance remained robust. Group merchandise sales increased 7.2 per cent to R270.8 billion for the 52 weeks to June 28, while trading profit rose 8.4 per cent to R16.2 billion. Its Sixty60 on-demand delivery platform grew sales by 34.5 per cent to R25.5 billion. The group’s value-added services, ticketing and financial transaction commissions rose 9.6 per cent to R1.37 billion. Separately, the group increased its shareholding in Zulzi On Demand, the company that helped build the original Sixty60 platform, from 26 per cent to 41.2 per cent during the year, with the stake valued at approximately R7 million ($432,548 USD). Zulzi continues to play a role in maintaining the Sixty60 platform, while also operating its own on-demand delivery service covering groceries, liquor and pharmaceuticals from seven dark stores. The group’s value-added services, ticketing and financial transaction commissions rose 9.6 per cent to R1.37 billion ($84.77 million USD)
A wave of fintech consolidation
Shoprite is not alone in its pursuit of fintech capabilities. South Africa’s corporate landscape has witnessed a flurry of acquisitions as retailers and banks seek to capture the informal economy — a sector that accounts for almost one-fifth of total employment, according to Standard Bank.
Pepkor, Africa’s largest clothing retailer, announced in July that it would combine its Flash fintech unit with payments platform Shop2Shop to create a merchant commerce and fintech platform provisionally named “FintechCo”, valued at approximately R21.3 billion ($1.29 billion). The merged entity is expected to process more than R200 billion in annual transactions.
Pepkor will acquire a 57.1 per cent controlling stake through a R1.57 billion cash subscription for newly issued Shop2Shop shares and the full equity contribution of Flash, valued at R10.6 billion. The retailer has signalled its intention to pursue a separate public listing for the fintech business within three years.
Nedbank completed its acquisition of SME-focused fintech iKhokha in August 2025 for about R1.65 billion ($93 million). The deal strengthened the bank’s digital services for small business clients. iKhokha, founded in 2012, has established itself as a leading trusted partner to South African entrepreneurs, offering a suite of affordable SME cash advance, payment and business management tools.
Lesaka Technologies, the JSE- and Nasdaq-listed fintech group, completed its R1.67 billion acquisition of payments operator Adumo in October 2024. The combined business now serves 1.7 million active consumers and 120,000 merchants, processing over R270 billion in annual throughput. In March 2025, Lesaka followed up with the R507 million acquisition of Recharger, a South African prepaid electricity submetering and payments business. The Recharger acquisition has since emerged as a growth engine within Lesaka’s Enterprise division.
In June 2025, Lesaka announced a R1.091 billion agreement to acquire 100 per cent of digital lender Bank Zero Mutual Bank. The acquisition, which remains subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to embed neobank capability into Lesaka’s fintech platform. Bank Zero, founded in 2018, had a deposit base in excess of R400 million and more than 40,000 funded accounts as of April 2025.
Capitec, South Africa’s largest digital bank, announced in December 2025 that it had entered into a binding agreement to acquire 100 per cent of Walletdoc Holdings, a payments fintech, in a deal valued at up to R400 million. The acquisition marked Capitec’s push into the increasingly competitive SME payments space.
Optasia, the JSE-listed microlender, agreed in March 2026 to acquire Dubai-based electricity credit specialist Finergi for $30 million (R497.6 million). The deal mirrors Lesaka’s Recharger acquisition and reflects a broader trend of fintech groups pivoting into utility credit, capitalising on the region’s structural power challenges.
South Africa’s hidden economy
The rush into fintech reflects a broader recognition that South Africa’s informal economy — long overlooked by formal financial institutions — represents one of the country’s most significant growth frontiers. Standard Bank’s research found that eight out of 10 businesses in the informal sector are unregistered, making access to finance for expansion nearly impossible. Many business owners continue to rely on personal bank accounts, cash transactions and manual bookkeeping, creating opportunities for integrated payments, lending and merchant services.
For retailers like Shoprite, the logic is clear. By equipping spaza shops with point-of-sale devices that can handle everything from electricity vouchers to card payments, the group can extend its financial services footprint into communities where formal banking infrastructure is scarce — while deepening its connection to the millions of South Africans who shop at its stores.
“The transaction will enable the meaningful scaling of the R&A Cellular platform by expanding the installed device base nationally across informal retailers,” Engelbrecht said. “These initiatives are expected to drive growth, deepen customer engagement, and extend the group’s financial services reach into the informal sector.”
Whether the bet pays off will depend on Shoprite’s ability to integrate R&A Cellular’s technology with its own vast retail ecosystem — and to navigate a competitive landscape that is becoming more crowded by the month.