South African payment routing startup NjiaPay raises $2.1 million seed round

NjiaPay, a South African payment management and routing startup, has raised $2.1 million in seed funding to grow its business and expand to more African markets. This follows a $1 million raise in January 2025. 

The round was led by European investor Newion, known for backing business software companies.

“We are grateful for Newion’s trust and partnership. Their experience in scaling B2B software businesses will support our next phase of growth and help ensure merchants on our platform achieve the best possible payment performance,” said Jonatan Allback, CEO of NjiaPay.

South Africa’s fintech sector consistently attracts the largest share of the country’s startup capital, claiming 70% of total funding in 2024, a trend that has carried into 2025. NjiaPay’s latest funding round reflects a broader investor shift toward infrastructure-level solutions.

Founded in 2024, NjiaPay helps online businesses manage their payments in one place by connecting to many different payment providers and methods through a single integration. 

It offers merchants a checkout for cards, mobile money, and bank transfers, automatically routes each transaction through the provider most likely to succeed, retries or blocks risky payments when needed, and then shows everything in one dashboard so finance and operations teams can easily track and reconcile payments across countries and providers.

The startup claims that many African companies rely on multiple payment partners to reach customers and increase the likelihood of successful transactions. But that often creates confusion, failed payments, and extra work. NjiaPay’s software automatically routes each transaction to the provider, showing all payment data in one place.

NjiaPay was spun out of Talk360, the international calling app, after its founders, Jonatan Allback and Roderick Simons, struggled to manage different payment systems across markets. The tool they built internally became the foundation for NjiaPay, which now works with high-growth companies such as Talk360, Anytime Fitness, and Melon Mobile.

After switching to NjiaPay, the startup said Talk360 reduced six payment integrations to one and saw a 25% boost in checkout conversions in key markets.

“NjiaPay has allowed us to focus on growth instead of managing payment providers,” said Hans Osnabrugge, Talk360’s CEO.

The startup also plans to introduce tools like Card Account Updater, a feature that automatically updates stored card information to prevent failed subscription payments.

“We back founders with deep category expertise who solve foundational business problems with exceptional software. Despite rapid fintech innovation, payments across Africa remain fragmented and complex for merchants,” said Mathijs de Wit, Managing Partner at Newion.