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South Africa’s fintech scene just minted its latest multimillionaires. Nedbank Group Ltd. has agreed to buy iKhokha, the Durban-based payments startup founded in 2012 by Matt Putman, Ramsay Daly and Clive Putman, for 1.65 billion rand ($94 million) in cash.
The deal, announced in a Johannesburg Stock Exchange filing, caps a 12-year journey for the founders, who began with a plan to help small shop owners accept card payments and ended with one of the country’s biggest banks writing a nine-figure cheque. While the company will be folded into Nedbank as a wholly owned subsidiary, it will keep its own brand and leadership—a management team now firmly locked in under the sale agreement.
For the founders, the payout is the kind of liquidity event most South African tech entrepreneurs dream of. iKhokha’s early backers—Apis Partners, Crossfin Holdings and the International Finance Corporation—are also cashing out, marking a clean exit from one of the country’s more visible fintech bets. Crossfin chief executive Dean Sparrow called it “a great home for the business” and a milestone for the SME sector it serves.
Nedbank is positioning the acquisition as a move to deepen its reach into the small-business market with a ready-made digital payments platform. CEO Jason Quinn said the deal dovetails with the bank’s ambition to “empower entrepreneurs” and accelerate its SME-focused digital transformation. iKhokha, which sells mobile point-of-sale devices and a merchant app, has grown into a go-to brand for small and medium-sized enterprises looking to ditch cash.
“Joining forces with Nedbank gives us the platform to scale our impact, further accelerate product innovation, and unlock new value for our merchants,” said Matt Putman, who will continue to lead the unit.
The transaction is expected to close in the coming months, pending regulatory approval. When it does, the founders who started with an idea in early 2012 will walk away with both a seat at Nedbank’s table—and bank accounts that look very different from the day they launched.
