Introduction
Peach Payments, a leading South African digital payments provider, has teamed up with Kenyan conversational commerce platform Sukhiba to introduce a new sales channel for South African merchants. This integration will allow businesses to facilitate WhatsApp-based sales, offering customers greater flexibility in how they shop and pay.
Expanding Digital Payment Capabilities
Founded in Cape Town in 2012, Peach Payments offers a comprehensive suite of tools to help businesses manage, accept, and disburse payments through both web and mobile platforms. It is the second-largest online payment gateway in South Africa and has also extended its presence to Kenya and Mauritius.
In 2022, the company secured US$31 million in a Series A funding round from Apis Partners, aimed at accelerating its growth across Africa and enhancing its product offering. Peach Payments further expanded its capabilities in July 2023 with the acquisition of customer software development firm Operativa. Now, the company is pushing forward by partnering with Sukhiba to add even more value to its platform.
Sukhiba: Transforming WhatsApp into a Sales Platform
Sukhiba, launched in 2021 by Ananth Raj Gudipati and Abhinav Reddy, is a conversational commerce and CRM platform that builds on top of WhatsApp. The platform is currently operational in multiple regions, including South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Nigeria, Oman, and India. Sukhiba is used by more than 35,000 SMEs, helping them directly engage with manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors.
Sukhiba recently raised US$1.55 million in a seed extension funding round, which will fuel its expansion across Africa and other emerging markets.
Unlocking a New Sales Channel for Merchants
Through this partnership, Peach Payments merchants can now integrate Sukhiba’s technology, which allows them to add their product catalogs to WhatsApp. The platform facilitates the entire process—from product purchases to payments and scheduling deliveries—while leveraging Peach Payments' infrastructure. This opens up WhatsApp commerce as a new and seamless sales channel for merchants, just in time for Black Friday and other major shopping events.
"Sukhiba’s technology lets merchants add their catalogs to WhatsApp and facilitates everything from product purchases to payments to scheduling deliveries," said Rahul Jain, CEO and founder of Peach Payments. "This partnership effectively utilizes Peach Payments’ platform on WhatsApp, giving our merchants and their customers flexible payment options, including card payments, EFT, buy-now-pay-later, and other alternative methods."
Accelerating WhatsApp Commerce in Africa
This partnership has the potential to transform WhatsApp commerce in South Africa, combining Sukhiba’s conversational sales tools with Peach Payments' robust payment infrastructure. Ananth Raj Gudipati, co-founder of Sukhiba, expressed confidence in the collaboration. "We are confident that the deep knowledge and network that Peach Payments brings to this partnership will accelerate WhatsApp commerce and payments in South Africa," he said.
Simplified Merchant Experience with Seamless Integration
Merchants can easily sign up through the Sukhiba website and manage their sales via the Sukhiba merchant app or the Peach Payments dashboard. Depending on their preferences, merchants can choose daily or weekly reconciliation and transfer cycles, ensuring smooth and efficient financial operations.
