By Kingsley Samuel
South Africa-based fintech infrastructure company, littlefish, has raised $9.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Partech, with participation from TLcom Capital, Flourish Ventures, and Proparco, to scale its merchant operating system across Africa.
The funding marks a significant step in littlefish’s mission to strengthen how financial institutions serve small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, a critical segment of Africa’s economy. Rather than competing with banks, littlefish integrates directly within their ecosystems, enabling them to deliver fintech-grade services while maintaining ownership of customer relationships.
The company’s platform connects point-of-sale, POS, devices, merchant applications, payments, APIs, and core banking systems into a unified infrastructure layer. This allows major financial institutions, including Standard Bank, First National Bank, and Absa Group, to offer seamless, digital-first merchant services at scale.
Speaking on the development, Co-Founder and CEO, Brandon Roberts, said the investment validates the company’s approach to supporting small businesses through existing financial institutions.
“This raise is a validation of our belief that the best way to serve Africa’s small businesses is to work with the institutions they already trust, not around them,” Roberts said. “We’ve proven the model in South Africa, and this capital gives us the runway to deepen those relationships and extend our reach to millions more merchants across the continent.”
littlefish has also partnered with Visa, integrating its platform into the global payments company’s small business onboarding strategy. The company disclosed that its monthly recurring revenue has grown 30 times since its seed round, underscoring strong market traction.
With the new capital, littlefish plans to expand into more than 10 African markets, including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, while accelerating product development and growing its team.
Matthieu Marchand, Principal at Partech, noted that littlefish has built critical infrastructure trusted by leading financial institutions.
“littlefish has done something rare by building indispensable infrastructure and earning the trust of Africa’s most powerful financial institutions,” he said. “We believe the company is well positioned to become the defining merchant infrastructure layer across the continent.”
Also commenting, Ameya Upadhyay, General Partner at Flourish Ventures, said the firm’s continued investment reflects confidence in littlefish’s growth trajectory.
“They’ve built deliberately, earned institutional trust, and created a platform that banks increasingly depend on. Their traction speaks for itself,” he added.
Headquartered in Johannesburg, littlefish will use the funding to deepen its presence in South Africa while scaling operations across new markets, positioning itself as a key enabler of digital transformation for Africa’s SME ecosystem.
