MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: SaltPay Acquires Paymentology, Tutuka to Boost Cloud Payments in Africa, Asia, Europe

SaltPay, a UK-based payment technology firm serving small and medium-sized enterprises in Europe, recently struck deals to acquire International Tutuka Holdings, a provider of payment cards that is based in South Africa, and Paymentology, a UK-based cloud payments firm active in Europe, Africa and Asia. “Cloud” payments refer to those performed via internet connectivity rather than telephone or other connections.

Launched in 2015, Paymentology assists 15 banks and fintechs with their processing of cloud payments. As of July 2019, the firm had total assets of GBP 1 million (USD 1.4 million). Tutuka supports remittance providers, mobile-wallet service providers and digital banks in 33 countries to issue Mastercard, UnionPay and Visa cards. Founded in 2019, SaltPay has offices in eight cities in Europe as well as one in Cape Town, South Africa.

While details of the Paymentology acquisition have not been released, SaltPay will acquire 63 percent of Tutuka shares from the UK-based private equity firm Apis Partners in return for an unspecified stake in SaltPay. The deals are scheduled to receive regulatory approval and close during the next several months.

Apis bought its stake in Tutuka in 2019 via the Apis Growth Fund II, which is focused on “the development of financial institutions across major global investor markets in the US, Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia.” As of 2021, Apis has raised USD 912 million for three funds in seven countries.

By Sophie Fiala, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

Tutuka press release
https://www.tutuka.com/news/saltpay-to-acquire-tutuka-and-paymentology-to-accelerate-issuer-processing-across-50-countries

Paymentology press release
https://www.paymentology.com/PressRelease/saltpay-acquires-paymentology-and-tutuka-47795

SaltPay homepage
https://www.saltpay.co/

Crunchbase profile on SaltPay
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/saltpay

Tutuka homepage
https://www.tutuka.com/

Paymentology homepage
https://www.paymentology.com/

Paymentology partners
https://www.paymentology.com/ClientsAndPartners

Paymentology financials
https://uk.globaldatabase.com/company/paymentology-limited

Apis Partners homepage
https://apis.pe/

Apis Partners financials
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/apis-partners