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LITTLEFISH RAISES $9.5M SERIES A ROUND LED BY PARTECH TO POWER MERCHANT INFRASTRUCTURE FOR BANKS ACROSS AFRICA
March 24th, 2026
The South Africa-based fintech infrastructure company serves financial institutions catering to the changing needs of the continent’s SME businesses.
24 March, 2026, Johannesburg, South Africa — littlefish, the merchant operating system powering the relationships between Africa's biggest banks and the merchant class, today announced the close of a $9.5 million Series A round led by Partech, with participation from TLCOM, Flourish Ventures, and Proparco. The round marks a significant milestone in the company's mission to transform how financial institutions serve small and mid-sized businesses across the continent.
littlefish's platform sits at the intersection of banking infrastructure and commerce enablement. Its commerce layer consolidates point-of-sale applications, back-office CRMs, merchant portals, payments, and APIs into a unified orchestration layer that integrates directly into POS devices and core banking systems. Serving tier 1 financial institutions as clients, including Standard Bank, First National Bank (FNB), and Absa, littlefish enables banks to offer fintech-grade merchant services at scale while preserving ownership of the merchant relationship. The company also has a key partnership with Visa, which has embedded littlefish's platform into the card payment institution’s small business onboarding strategy. Littlefish’s monthly recurring revenue has grown 30x since its seed round.
“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,” said Brandon Roberts, Co-Founder and CEO of littlefish. “We’ve proven the model in South Africa, and this capital gives us the runway to deepen those relationships and bring what we’ve built to millions more merchants across the continent. The little guys deserve world-class financial infrastructure, too, and we’re building it.”
With the new capital, littlefish is significantly growing its team, accelerating product development, and scaling its go-to-market operations. The company will deepen its relationships with existing South African banking clients and merchants while expanding its footprint to more than 10 additional African markets, including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia.
“littlefish has done something rare: it has built indispensable infrastructure and convinced Africa’s most powerful financial institutions to stake their merchant businesses on it,” said Matthieu Marchand, Principal at Partech. “With the deep trust littlefish has already established in South Africa and a clear path to expansion across more than 10 markets, we believe the company is positioned to become the defining merchant infrastructure layer for the continent. We’re proud to lead this round and support the team as they scale.”
“When we backed littlefish at the seed stage, we believed in the team’s vision for what bank-embedded merchant infrastructure could become in South Africa and other emerging markets,” said Ameya Upadhyay, General Partner at Flourish Ventures. “Since then, they’ve built deliberately, earned the trust of the largest institutions on the continent, and created a platform that banks need. Participating in this Series A round was an easy decision. littlefish’s traction speaks for itself, and we’re excited to see what comes next.”
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About littlefish
littlefish is a merchant operating system that transforms acquiring banks into fintechs and small businesses into digital enterprises. By integrating directly into POS devices and core banking systems, littlefish enables Africa's largest financial institutions to deliver unified, digital-first merchant services at scale. The company is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/littlefishapp/
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About Partech
Partech is a global tech investment firm headquartered in Paris, with offices in Berlin, Dakar, Dubai, Nairobi, and San Francisco. We are a team made up of industry and technology experts who are independent thinkers. Partech brings together capital, operational experience, and strategic support to back entrepreneurs from seed to growth stage. Born in San Francisco 40 years ago, Partech today manages close to €3 billion in assets for a current portfolio of 220 companies, across 40 countries and 4 continents.
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About TLCOM
TLcom Capital (TLCOM) is a Lagos, Nairobi, and London based venture capital firm whose mission is to find and fund Africa’s most exceptional founders.With $225 million under management and a two-decade track record, TLCOM backs entrepreneurs building scalable and resilient companies that transform industries and create enduring economic value across the continent. The firm is currently investing from its $154 million TIDE Africa II Fund, focused on early-to-growth stage opportunities. TLCOM’s portfolio spans 20+ companies across 5 African markets.
https://linkedin.com/company/tlcom-capital
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About Flourish Ventures
Flourish Ventures is an $850M global early-stage venture firm that backs entrepreneurs transforming financial systems for the better. We believe the most valuable fintech companies solve foundational challenges—expanding access, improving products, lowering costs—allowing people and businesses to thrive. Flourish’s global portfolio spans over 100 companies across the U.S. and emerging markets. Current investments include unicorns such as Alloy, Flutterwave, Kin, Neon, and Unit, alongside frontier innovators such as Akua, Brico, Crossmint, Fuse, Reserv, Spade, Stitch, Swap, and Vidyut. The firm also champions entrepreneurs shaping policy, media, and research to accelerate lasting change in financial services. Our evergreen structure enables us to back long-term trends with conviction, unconstrained by traditional fund timelines. Notable exits include Brigit (acquired by Upbound Group), Chime (NASDAQ: CHYM), GrabFinance (NASDAQ: GRAB), Mantl (acquired by Alkami), SeedFi (acquired by Intuit), and United Income (acquired by Capital One).
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About Proparco
Proparco, the French development finance institution, has been working with the private sector for over 45 years for a more just and sustainable world. With an international network of 25 local offices, Proparco works closely with its partners to build sustainable solutions in response to environmental and social challenges in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. Proparco benefits from sector-based expertise as well as a wide range of financial solutions tailored to the different stages of business development.
This investment is made under the EU-backed Choose Africa VC program with support from the European Union and the European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus (EFSD+).
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