South Africa’s Fintech startup Bloofold launches Alternative Payments rail

In its bid to provide an easier and cheaper payment method, Johannesburg-based Fintech startup Bloofold has announced it’s rolling out an alternative payments rail for spaza shops and tavern owners.

Bloofold was founded in 2017 by Thabang Kekana and is based in South Africa, the startup is focused on providing alternative banking and payments rail for local businesses in rural and urban areas through its merchant-initiated payments application via mobile device.

Thabang Kekana speaking on the development said that it is offering the platform to introduce safer payment means for taverns and spaza shops in the area.

“The market we are targeting between spaza shops and taverns alone is worth over ZAR160 billion (US$11.3 billion), and 90 percent of these transactions happen in cash.

“Bloofold is introducing a safer and cheaper option to pay, with high rewards and the ability to borrow against the wallet. We are offering this technology at no cost for businesses to integrate our APIs if they wish and remove the curse of having to scuffle with the traditional banking system before rolling out a platform” said Kekana

The platform allows free usage until a merchant reaches a certain threshold in monthly sales, at which point fees can go as high as 0.55 percent per transaction, while also allowing them to borrow money against their wallets, get rebates and discounts.