SA Startup TurnStay Tops in $62M Payments Ahead of Series A

STARTUP VENTURE CAPITALAugust 12, 2026 at 9:52 AM UTC

TLDR

TurnStay processes over ZAR1 billion in transactions in the first half of 2026, targeting a 70% reduction in payment costs for African merchants.
The startup offers lower fees starting at 1.6% compared to the industry standard of up to 8% for foreign card payments in Africa.
TurnStay, having raised $2.3 million in funding, is expanding operations across Africa to address cross-border payment challenges in the tourism sector.

South African travel payments startup TurnStay processed more than ZAR1 billion, about $61.5 million, in transactions in the first 6 months of 2026 as it prepares to raise a Series A round. The milestone comes 3 years after founders Alon Stern and James Hedley started the company to cut the cost of accepting payments from international travelers.

TurnStay processes card payments in a traveler’s home market before settling funds to African merchants in local currency. It combines a merchant-of-record model with payment routing and stablecoins for cross-border transfers. The company says the system can reduce payment costs by as much as 70% while cutting settlement times.

African hotels and tour operators can pay fees of as much as 8% when accepting foreign cards through local payment systems, according to TurnStay. The startup says its rates start at 1.6%. Its customers include safari lodges, tour operators and accommodation providers such as Singita, Safari.com, Londolozi and The Capital.

TurnStay raised $300,000 in pre-seed funding in 2024 and another $2 million in seed capital in 2025. The company is now preparing a Series A to support expansion across Africa. South Africa remains its base, while activity is growing in Mauritius, Kenya, Tanzania and Botswana.

The company is targeting a problem tied to Africa’s tourism sector: international customers pay in foreign currencies while local businesses need to receive funds at home without losing a large part of each booking to payment and foreign-exchange costs. TurnStay’s growth suggests demand for payment systems built around cross-border tourism. Its next test will be whether it can maintain transaction growth as it enters more markets and takes on the regulatory and banking requirements that come with moving money across borders.

Points clés à retenir

TurnStay’s ZAR1 billion payment milestone matters because transaction volume is the main measure of whether its model is being used, but volume does not show how much revenue or profit the company earns. Its model targets a cost that can take a large share of the margin on African travel bookings. By processing a foreign traveler’s card closer to where it was issued and then moving the funds into Africa through payment rails that include stablecoins, TurnStay aims to avoid some of the cross-border card and foreign-exchange costs charged to merchants. The model also shows one use of stablecoins that does not require the hotel or traveler to hold crypto assets. They operate as part of the settlement infrastructure while the merchant receives local currency. Scaling that system across Africa will require local banking partners, licenses, compliance systems and enough transaction volume in each market to keep costs low. The planned Series A should therefore be judged by what TurnStay does with its payment volume: how many merchants it adds, how much each merchant processes, what margin it keeps on transactions and how many markets it can enter without raising costs. At its current pace, annual payment volume would exceed ZAR2 billion if activity holds.

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