Tutuka announced today that global financial services investor, Apis Partners (as manager of Apis Growth Fund II), has acquired a majority stake in Tutuka. Apis acquired their stake from Paycorp, who invested in Tutuka in 2015, and helped the company grow their international presence and more than triple in size since their initial investment. 

Tutuka is well known for its unique processor plus model which enables fintechs, mobile wallets, apps and banks across emerging markets to easily issue Mastercard and Visa payment products, such as physical or virtual cards that are linked to the values in their customers’ wallets or accounts.

In 2019, Tutuka has launched programmes with clients such as Octopus in Hong Kong, Grab in Asia, MTN in Africa as well as other programmes in the Middle East and Latin America.

As financial services focused investors, Apis was attracted to Tutuka’s strong presence across 19 emerging markets, as well as its client base of telcos and wallets that are the fastest growing financial service players in those markets.

Matteo Stefanel, Apis Partners’ Managing Partner and Co-Founder, highlighted that “the mobile wallet ecosystem is forecast to grow at over 45% p.a. through to 2021, and we believe that Tutuka is extremely well positioned to capitalise on this growth while delivering significant value for these ecosystem owners.”

“We are proud to have Apis as investors,” said Rowan Brewer, CEO of Tutuka. “Emerging markets is where the growth and innovation in financial services is happening and Apis will add to Tutuka’s ability to enable fintechs, mobile wallets, apps and banks to easily issue Mastercard and Visa cards and payment products to their customers. Often this is the very first time these customers are able to access the millions of POS terminals, ATMS and e-commerce sites that accept Mastercard and Visa. That is true financial inclusion, it’s where the fastest growth will be in the future, and that is why as part of this deal, management and staff have kept a substantial stake in Tutuka.”

Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) on behalf of Tutuka and Apis.

About Tutuka
Tutuka (www.tutuka.com) is a third-party payments enabler that makes payments happen by enabling our clients’ customers to pay with Mastercard and Visa cards and products. Tutuka enables fintechs, mobile wallets, apps and banks across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America to issue virtual and physical cards and other Mastercard and Visa payment products. Tutuka’s processor plus model allows our clients to easily, cost effectively and quickly link into card schemes without the complexity and slow timelines normally associated with processors.

About Apis Partners LLP
Apis Partners LLP (www.apis.pe) is a private equity asset manager that supports growth stage financial services and financial infrastructure businesses in Africa and Asia by providing them with catalytic growth equity capital. Apis Partners LLP’s team is comprised of over 26 professionals with specialised expertise in financial services and technology in growth markets. Apis Partners LLP is highly conscious of the developmental impact that the provision of growth capital for financial services in growth markets can achieve, and as such, financial inclusion is a core tenet of Apis Partners LLP’s approach and investment mandate.