Software and payment devices provider Capital Appreciation (Capprec) has become one of the biggest beneficiaries of the move away from cash that has been expedited by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The fintech group, in which Patrice Motsepe’s investment vehicle African Rainbow Capital owns a minority stake, reported on Wednesday morning that sales of its payment terminals shot up by 26.6% in the six months to end-September.
Capprec also rolled out Android-based payment terminals in the South African market during this period. These terminals allow small merchants to accept card payments, in some instances without needing a point-of-sale device if a business has linked its payment platform to an Android smartphone.
"The Android terminals’ attractive functionality, price, and quality have been well received," wrote the company in its results announcement.
Banks are reporting that contactless payments facilitated via the Android devices have skyrocketed since the beginning of the lockdown.
Capprec took the Android evolution a step further by partnering with Nedbank and Mastercard by introducing 'Tap on Phone' to South Africa, which the green bank introduced to its business customers in June this year.
Capprec said it has negotiated a partnership to supply more Android terminals to its other clients, including major banks and other financial services companies in SA and in other African markets.
"The ongoing acceleration in digital transformation, electronic payments, and related advances has received further impetus during the pandemic. Capprec is ideally positioned to benefit from this evolution," said Capprec joint CEO notes Bradley Sacks.
The company said even though significant uncertainty remains because of Covid-19 and South Africa's economic recovery post the pandemic, its payments division still boasts a strong sales pipeline for the next six months because of an appetite for new payment platforms.
It added that its services business, Synthesis, which offers highly specialised software development and integration services to banks was also experiencing growing demand for its services.
Synthesis is the business that developed the GovChat platform which assisted the department of social development and SASSA with facilitating Covid-19 unemployment grants.