Rising Ethiopian Fintech Startup SantimPay Processes 13 Million Br Daily

Payment solutions provider SantimPay Financial Technologies has revealed that its online payment gateway is processing an average of 13 million birr ($240,000) in transactions per day.

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The fintech startup achieved these figures six months after the launch of its payment gateway, which facilitates online payments from local and international bank accounts, debit cards, and wallets.

In an interview with Shega, SantimPay disclosed that it has successfully integrated 4100 merchants into its platform.

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According to Abenezer Bekele, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at SantimPay, the success of the fintech company can be attributed to its complementary role rather than being seen as a competitor within the ecosystem, which has helped it generate more value in the market.

The daily transaction total of 13 million birr stems from a diverse daily user base of 23,532, with each transaction averaging 368.75 birr. SantimPay further shares that, to date, a total of 312,892 users have utilized the gateway to conduct online payments.

Currently, SantimPay’s online payment gateway is integrated with CBE Birr, Bank of Abyssinia Debit Card, as well as telebirr, from which most of the transactions come.

In addition to its online payment gateway, SantimPay has developed a mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) and a Unified Payment Interface (UPI) through its SantimPay App. The app, available in the Play Store and App Store, enables users to consolidate all their banking accounts into a single mobile application.

Users can scan and pay, as well as send money, using only the SantimPay app, which provides access to all the banking accounts linked with the app.

The National Bank of Ethiopia issued SantimPay a license to provide financial services as a Payment Gateway Operator and Point of Sale Machine (POS) Operator in July 2022.

A year prior to obtaining this license, the startup raised 160 million birr in a private placement round. The paid-up capital constituted 25 percent (40 million birr) of the total raised capital, while the remaining 75 percent (120 million birr) was allocated as subscribed capital.

The startup has added that it’s finishing its pilot period and getting close to receiving commercialization permission from the regulator.