Visa, a global leader in digital payments, has announced strategic investments and commercial partnerships with two fintechs following their 12-week engagement through the Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator program, which enables start-ups to scale through training, mentorship, and networking opportunities.
Visa’s investments include Konnect, a fintech based in Tunisia which enables seamless, accessible, and instant payments by provisioning links that can be shared via SMS, email, messenger, or WhatsApp, and PayTic, a fintech based in Morocco which streamlines back-office operations and enhances risk control across digital payments.
At Visa, Leila Serhan, Senior Vice President and Group Country Manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan (NALP) region, commented: “These innovative fintechs are a beacon of creativity and dedication, revolutionising commerce and finance. Visa is proud to support their journey, providing essential resources, mentorship, and opportunities to drive digital transformation across Africa.”
“We at Konnect are thrilled with Visa’s continued trust in our vision of driving seamless and instant payments across Africa, empowering businesses and individuals to transact easily and confidently. As a global leader, Visa reinforces our commitment to shaping the future of payments,” said Amin Ben Abderrahman, CEO of Konnect.
Imad Boumahdi, CEO of PayTic, said: “With Visa’s backing, we are uniquely positioned to push the boundaries of possibility in fintech, helping bolster the compliance of digital payments and streamline operations for our clients. We look forward to leveraging Visa’s deep expertise, knowledge, and resources to drive growth and impact.”
These fintechs join Visa’s recent investments across its first-cohort Accelerator alumni, including Oze (Ghana), which provides embedded finance products to SMEs, Workpay (Kenya), which offers a cloud-based payroll platform, OkHi (Nigeria), an intelligent addressing system that facilitates digital address verification, and ORDA, a cloud-based restaurant software company digitising over 1,500 restaurants across Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa.
Visa has also announced its strategic partnership with Chari (Morocco), a B2B platform with embedded fintech solutions for mom-and-pop shops. The partnership will support SME digitisation in Morocco and North Africa to drive digital acceptance and issuance.
Ismael Belkhayat, CEO and Co-Founder of Chari, commented: “Partnering with Visa will significantly enhance our financial services for merchants. By bringing Visa’s leading acceptance and payment capabilities to the thousands of merchants across North Africa, we are poised to drive digital transformation and growth in the region.”
This announcement follows Visa’s participation as the Financial Innovation Partner at GITEX Africa 2025, which took place from April 14 to 16 in Marrakech, Morocco. On April 15, Visa concluded the third cohort of the Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator program on the GITEX 10X Stage, bringing together 19 cutting-edge fintech companies from across the continent to showcase their innovative solutions to an audience of venture capitalists, angel investors, and business partners.
Representing the third Accelerator program cohort, the start-ups comprised dynamic and next-gen Pan-African innovators operating across 21 African nations. They featured 85% female leadership, marking a substantial increase from less than 50% in the inaugural edition and 65% in the second, progress which Visa is committed to continuing.
The Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator is a comprehensive three-month program designed to support Seed to Series A startups by offering one-on-one mentorship, training, and exclusive opportunities for funding and partnership. It aligns with Visa’s commitment to invest $1 billion in Africa by 2027. Since its launch in 2023, this initiative has accelerated over 60 startups, with the fourth cohort set to be announced on June 2, 2025.
Culminating in Demo Day, where participants unveiled their groundbreaking solutions to an audience of influential ecosystem enablers, the program provides valuable exposure and visibility, opening the door to future strategic collaborations and growth avenues.
