CB Insights has named South Africa digital payments service provider Peach Payments to its seventh annual Fintech 100, showcasing the 100 most promising private fintech companies in the world.
“The 2024 Fintech 100 winners are high-momentum companies shaping the future of financial services,” says Laura Kennedy, principal analyst at CB Insights. “Unsurprisingly, this year’s cohort is deploying AI across a wide variety of solutions. But they’re also diverse in their reach in emerging and developing economies, and focus on everything from fraud prevention to financial inclusion.”
Peach Payments CEO Rahul Jain says the company is excited to be included, and that the accolade is recognition of the work put in to achieve the company’s aim: to deliver an enterprise-grade payments solution for merchants of all sizes to assist them to grow and achieve their business goals.
Peach Payments concluded a $30-million funding deal, led by the Apis Growth Fund II, in September last year. It earmarked the investment to accelerate growth, build new products and expand its African footprint beyond its presence in South Africa, Mauritius and Kenya.
It has since acquired custom software development firm Operativa as a going concern, and integrated with conversational commerce platform Sukhiba to facilitate WhatsApp-based sales for its South African merchants.
In addition, Peach Payments has launched a point of sale (PoS) solution that gives customers a single view of their online and in-store transactions.
“I’ve watched their business grow from strength to strength by delivering innovative solutions for their customers,” says Arthur Goldstuck, founder and CEO of World Wide Worx. “Our work with Peach Payments has given us an appreciation of a team that is constantly operating at the forefront of the payments industry.”
The CB Insights list primarily includes early- and mid-stage startups driving innovation across fintech. CB Insights says its research team picked winning companies based on CB Insights’ datasets, including deal activity, industry partnerships, team strength, investor strength, employee headcount, and proprietary Commercial Maturity and Mosaic scores. It also dug into Analyst Briefings submitted directly by startups.
Some quick facts about the 2024 Fintech 100 include:
- The 100 winners include 13 wealth management companies, 11 in embedded finance, and 10 in insurance.
- The 2024 cohort is deploying AI across a wide variety of use cases and features a notable number of solutions driving financial inclusion and accessibility.
- $7,1-billion in equity funding raised over time, including more than $2-billion in 2024 so far (as of 23 October 2024).
- Nearly 50% are early-stage companies (primarily seed/angel or Series A).
- 51 companies from outside the US, across 23 countries on six continents. This includes 17 companies from 11 emerging and developing economies.
- 850+ business relationships since 2022, including with industry leaders like Mastercard, State Street and Flipkart.