SA FinTech Stitch Launches One-Click Payment Product

Stitch, a data and API fintech, has announced the launch of LinkPay, a linked-account payments product. With LinkPay, businesses in Nigeria and South Africa can accept secure, one-click payments directly from a user’s bank account.

LinkPay can be used in conjunction with Stitch Payouts and Financial Data to provide a full linked-account experience, including verified payments, refunds, and withdrawals. This will allow businesses in both South Africa and Nigeria to link their financial accounts and pay securely via instant bank transfer, in seconds.

The Chief Product Officer at Stitch, Junaid Dadan, had this to say about LinkPay, “With LinkPay, Stitch can enable businesses to offer a more frictionless and secure payments experience, making it easier than ever for their customers to pay and save costs. Combined with Stitch Financial Data and Payouts products, LinkPay offers a truly unique closed-loop linked-account experience for returning users – from fast, seamless onboarding, to one-click payments and payouts. As a result, businesses will see higher conversion rates, a reduction in costs, and ultimately a more convenient experience for their users.”

Young people comprise the majority of Africa’s population and old traditional payment methods are no longer meeting their needs. With the rise in digital literacy comes the demand for faster, more convenient, and more secure ways to transact. The manual transfer payment system is often unreliable, and time-consuming as it requires users to log in before every single transaction attempt. With LinkPay, businesses can tokenize user financial accounts and enable one-click payments for transactions.

Stitch, which is a South-African start-up, emerged stealthily in February 2021. Eight months later, the company secured a $2 million seed extension and moved to expand into Nigeria, hiring start-up professional Benjamin Dada to lead this expansion. In February 2022, Stitch raised $21 million in Series A funding, backed by PayPal Ventures, TrueLayer, CRE Venture Capital, and others. 

Below are some of the features of LinkPay:

1. One-click payments for returning users: Returning users can choose to link their financial accounts as a default payment method by logging in via Stitch once, and offerings, and any fintech application that involves repeat transactions from the same primary financial account
2. Verified payments: Once a user’s account is linked, LinkPay can be combined with Stitch n top up or checkout in one click every time after – no-repeat login required
3. Link and pay later: Users can pre-link an account and come back anytime to make a payment. This is useful for products such as scan-to-pay apps, and investment Financial Data to reference account details such as name or ID for verified payments with reduced risk of fraud. In addition, balances, and transactions history can also be checked for ‘smart’ payments that fail less.
4. Seamless payouts over API: Combining LinkPay + Stitch Payouts enables users to receive refunds or make withdrawals to the same verified account used for a pay-in.

LinkPay can be used by fintech, e-commerce businesses, and online marketplaces.