Financial technology (fintech) and retail company HiL is using the strong digital platforms of its successful FinChoice business to spearhead a stable of consumer fintech businesses called Weaver Fintech, which has already added PayJustNow to its stable.

The 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,” HiL says.

Weaver Fintech's Finchoice business has convincingly proven the business case for mobile-first fintech in the highly mobile-savvy South African market. FinChoice’s more than 270 000 customer base consistently rates the company highly for its personal loans, digital wallet, insurance products and value-added services.

“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,” says HiL chairperson Shirley Maltz.

Aligned to this, Weaver Fintech also made its first acquisition, taking an 85% stake in the fast-growing Southern African buy now, pay later (BNPL) start-up business PayJustNow.

This adds another vital ingredient, namely payments, to Weaver Fintech’s consumer offering, HiL says.

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 zero-interest payment option, PayJustNow is winning over consumers and proving a valuable partner to South African retailers, says Weaver Fintech.

“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,” highlights Maltz.

“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 technical expertise ensures the ability to rapidly respond to market needs and business insights, delivering a 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,” Finchoice CEO Sean Wibberley says.

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, says PayJustNow CEO Craig Newborn.

“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,” he adds.

“We are delighted with the acquisition of PayJustNow. 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,” says Maltz.