Stitch CEO Kiaan Pillay on Raising $55M, Competing with Giants, and Why South Africa Still Comes First
Stitch provides an API platform that enables businesses to build secure, user-friendly financial products.
When Cape Town-based Stitch announced its $55 million Series B last month, it was one of the largest funding rounds in South African fintech history. But for CEO and co-founder Kiaan Pillay, it’s not just a headline—it’s fuel for a focused, ambitious strategy to become the best enterprise payments provider in the region.
In a recent interview on The TechCentral Show, Pillay unpacked the story behind the raise, the product decisions that got them there, and why Stitch is doubling down on South Africa rather than rushing into pan-African expansion.
From Hack Project to Infrastructure Provider
Pillay and co-founder Priyen Naidoo started Stitch in classic startup fashion: tinkering with a personal payments app to split meals and coffees. But the real “aha” moment came when they realized just how broken the money movement layer was in South Africa—and how difficult it was to build compliant infrastructure.
They didn’t start by solving everything. “We weren’t trying to be a full-stack PSP,” Pillay explained. “We just wanted to move money with an API call. But once we got that working—even in a very hacky way—we knew we were onto something.”
Raising Big by Thinking Deep
While global investors have often treated Africa as a “last frontier” for fintech, Stitch took a more grounded approach. “We weren’t trying to be Stitch in Nigeria or Kenya,” said Pillay. “We barely had product-market fit in South Africa when we tried expanding—and it was a disaster.”
Instead, Stitch made a hard decision in 2022: offboard non-enterprise clients and focus entirely on large South African companies. The move paid off. Enterprise clients didn’t just want pay-by-bank—they wanted card processing, crypto payments, digital wallets, and in-person integrations.
With demand surging, Stitch acquired Exipay to expand into physical payments and became the first South African PSP to support Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. That omni-channel capability—paired with Stitch’s full-stack control—helped seal the latest funding round led by QED Investors, with participation from Ribbit Capital and even Trevor Noah.
Why Trevor Noah Invested
Pillay recounted how the connection came through a well-connected South African angel investor now based in Silicon Valley. “It was one of those amazing introductions,” Pillay said. “We chatted, hit it off, and he ended up investing. He’s passionate about the country and wants to support more innovation here.”
Crypto, Compliance, and the Road Ahead
Stitch isn’t ignoring crypto either. The company already supports “Pay with Crypto” features and holds a CASP license from South Africa’s regulators—proof that Stitch is willing to play the long game in emerging payment rails, even if consumer adoption lags behind.
As for expansion? For now, South Africa remains the focus. “We’ve convinced our investors there’s a big enough opportunity right here,” said Pillay. “We may build different kinds of businesses in other markets—but we’re not going to try and clone Stitch in Nigeria.”
With 130 employees, high-profile customers like Takealot and MTN, and volume growing across both online and in-person channels, Stitch is proving that local focus can lead to global-class execution.
Watch the full interview on The TechCentral Show
Listen to Kiaan Pillay with Jenny Fielding on the Venture Everywhere podcast: A Stitch in Payment Time. Now on Apple & Spotify and check out all our past episodes here!
