14 Apr Payfast Partners with Innovation City to Power the Infrastructure Behind Growth

At Innovation City, we spend a lot of time talking about growth; how businesses acquire customers, build products, and scale. But there’s a layer that sits underneath all of that, quietly determining whether that growth actually materialises: Payments.

Not as infrastructure, but as a system that directly impacts conversion, trust, and the ability to operate at scale.

That’s why this partnership matters! We’re pleased to welcome Payfast by Network as a Premium Events Partner at Innovation City for the next 12 months, joining us across our flagship programming and ecosystem engagements. Over the next 12 months, Payfast will contribute insight across Innovation City’s flagship programming  supporting founders with practical perspectives on conversion optimisation, payment behaviour, and revenue enablement in digital businesses.

A Company That Has Scaled With the Market

Payfast has been part of South Africa’s digital commerce story since 2007. Today, as part of Network International, it sits inside one of the largest payments ecosystems across the Middle East and Africa, supporting over 120,000 merchants and operating across more than 40 countries.

That scale matters, but so does their position.

They sit at the point where transactions happen – across e-commerce, platforms, subscriptions, and increasingly more complex digital business models. That gives them a clear line of sight into how South Africans actually pay, and how that behaviour is changing.

And that change is real.

According to Payfast’s own data, digital payments are no longer a future state; they are actively driving revenue growth, with many businesses seeing measurable increases as they adopt more flexible payment options.

A Shift From Payments to Growth Infrastructure

What stands out in Payfast’s recent thinking is a clear shift in how payments are positioned.

As Mpho Sadiki, Network International’s MD for Merchant Services, Africa and Payfast’s MD, puts it: “Innovation ecosystems play an important role in helping businesses move from traction to scale. Through this partnership with Innovation City, we’re looking forward to bringing more practical payments insight into founder conversations at the point where growth decisions are actually made.”

That’s not a product statement. It’s a strategic one.

The move toward multiple payment methods, faster transaction times, and embedded finance is not just about convenience, it’s about enabling businesses to convert demand into revenue more efficiently.

In their latest annual State of Pay report, Payfast highlights something many founders underestimate: transaction speed, payment choice, and checkout experience are directly linked to liquidity and growth.

In other words, payments are no longer the end of the journey. They are part of the operating model.

Built for a Local Market, Backed by Global Scale

One of the more important dynamics in Payfast’s evolution is the combination of local understanding with global infrastructure.

Payments remain deeply local. Customer behaviour, trust signals, and preferred payment methods vary significantly by market, and South Africa is no exception. Payfast has built its business around this reality, supporting the mix of cards, instant EFT, and alternative payment methods that reflect how South Africans actually transact.

At the same time, being part of Network International brings access to a much broader ecosystem, spanning fintech infrastructure, financial institutions, and cross-market capabilities across the Middle East and Africa.

This combination shows up in how they’re building:

• Supporting multiple payment methods that reflect local behaviour
• Enabling faster onboarding and quicker time-to-revenue for businesses
• Expanding into areas like embedded finance, BNPL, and unified commerce

It’s a model that reflects where the market is going, not just where it has been.

What This Partnership Brings Into the Room

This partnership is about bringing the payments layer closer to the founders and operators building South Africa’s next generation of digital businesses.

More importantly, they bring a perspective that is often missing in founder conversations:

• What actually happens at the point of transaction
• Where businesses lose revenue in the final step
• How payment design influences customer behaviour
• What high-performing businesses are doing differently

This is operational insight, not theory.

Why This Matters for the Ecosystem

South Africa’s digital economy is maturing, and we’re seeing that play out directly across the Innovation City community. Founders are not just building products, they are building businesses that need to transact, collect, and move money efficiently from day one.

If you’re running an e-commerce brand, the checkout experience determines whether your marketing spend converts into revenue or disappears at the final step.

If you’re building a marketplace or platform, payments influence onboarding, liquidity, and whether both sides of your network stay engaged.

If you’re offering a subscription or service-based product, how you handle recurring payments directly impacts retention and cash flow.

Even for early-stage startups, these decisions arrive sooner than expected. The moment you start charging customers, the mechanics of how money moves through your business begin to shape your ability to grow.

Across the ecosystem, we see the same patterns: abandoned carts, failed transactions, delayed settlements, and customers dropping off at the point where intent should convert.

These are not edge cases. They are operational realities.

And increasingly, they are what separates businesses that can scale cleanly from those that struggle to turn traction into revenue.

Together, Payfast and Innovation City will work to make payments a more visible part of how founders think about growth, helping businesses move faster from customer interest to successful transactions and sustainable revenue.

If this is a layer you’re actively thinking about in your business, join the conversation with Payfast MD Mpho Sadiki and a panel of operators working across payments, fraud, and financial infrastructure at our “Bots & Bubbles: How AI Is Rewiring Financial Services”event happening on 23 April 2026, 5:30pm – 7pm, only at Innovation City Cape Town.

Grab a ticket here.