Cape Town, 17 February 2022.
Listed fintech provider and omnichannel retailer, HiL, today announced that it is utilising the strong digital platforms of its successful FinChoice business to spearhead a stable of consumer fintech businesses under the rebranded umbrella of “Weaver Fintech”. Weaver Fintech has already added a new investment, PayJustNow, to the stable.
Fintech market share in South Africa is expected to triple by 2023, with almost 50% of this from payments and lending. Weaver Fintech will take full advantage of the acceleration in this sector by building and buying a stable of businesses that apply all the traits that have already established them as a successful consumer fintech business – digitally-led, insights-driven, built on real-time data, with a strong customer-centric focus and consistent customer experience.
Weaver Fintech said that its Finchoice business has convincingly proven the business case for mobi-first fintech in the highly mobile-savvy South African market. FinChoice’s 270 000+ (and accelerating) customer base consistently gives the company a big thumbs-up for its personal loans, digital wallet, insurance products and value-added services, earning it a 4.6 Google satisfaction rating.
HiL Chair, Shirley Maltz, said: “We have invested early and extensively in the latest cloud-based technology, digital marketing, social media monetisation, and machine learning algorithms, which has given us an edge in digital mobile-first transacting. Our well-entrenched technology platforms provide solid building blocks to take advantage of the significant growth opportunities in the fintech space.”
Aligned to this, Weaver Fintech today also announced its first acquisition, an 85% stake in the fastest growing Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) business in Southern Africa, start-up PayJustNow. This adds another vital ingredient, payments, to Weaver Fintech’s consumer offering.
BNPL is one of the fastest-growing segments in the booming payments space, with significant consumer appeal and adoption, and the ability to drive improved conversion and higher sales for merchants. Analysts predict consumers globally will make nearly $100 billion in retail purchases using BNPL in 2021, up from $24 billion in 2020 and $20 billion in 2019.
With its transparent, convenient, risk-free and #zerointerest payment option, PayJustNow is winning over consumers and proving a valuable partner to South African retailers. Customers can use PayJustNow’s three split payment, interest-free option at more than 2 500 points of sale, both online and in-store. The pace of customer adoption has been strong as consumers recognise the benefits of PayJustNow, accelerating to over 180 000 customers signed up since launched in August 2019.
HIL Chair, Shirley Maltz, said: “Not only does the BNPL sector provide highly attractive growth prospects as a standalone product set, but with the acquisition of PayJustNow, Weaver Fintech now has a base of over 410 000 fintech customers and 170 000 digital wallet customers, with the opportunity to cross-sell products, which enables highly efficient customer acquisition.”
Craig Newborn, CEO of PayJustNow, said that retailers using BNPL programmes are seeing incremental sales boosts of up to 30%, with an increase in average basket size of up to 35%.” In addition, the considerable Weaver FinTech customer base offers an attractive proposition for new merchants signing up with PayJustNow. “The investment presents exciting opportunities, and the robust capital base opens doors for expansion and further product development, which will add significant benefit for both our consumers and merchants”, Newborn added.
Sean Wibberley, CEO of Finchoice said that “PayJustNow is a key strategic fintech investment for us, with its innovative, purpose-built platform and high customer adoption rates which have been delivered in a short space of time. Its local tech expertise ensures the ability to rapidly respond to market needs and business insights, delivering a truly customer-centric offering built on real-time data. For Weaver Fintech it will be an attractive addition to the basket of financial service products already offered to our growing customer base.”
“We are delighted with the acquisition of PayJustNow,” said Maltz. “The customer base has more than trebled over the past year and the cultural cohesion is strong across the fintech teams ensuring real traction of our fintech strategy and rapid technology implementations.”