Homegrown fintech Walletdoc, founded by a game developer and an engineer, sold to Capitec for R400 million, bringing cutting-edge digital payment solutions to South Africa. Picture Credits: Giesecke
By Aisha Zardad
South Africa – Capitec Bank, South Africa’s largest bank by customer base, has announced that it will acquire fintech company Walletdoc Holdings for a total of R400 million, pending regulatory approvals. The Johannesburg-based fintech, founded in 2015, provides scalable payment gateway solutions for merchants, including online and in-app payments, digital wallets, Instant EFT, payment links, and real-time payouts.
Capitec said Walletdoc’s innovative culture, efficiency, and client-focused approach align closely with the bank’s core values. “This acquisition is a strategic step in our ongoing commitment to lower the cost of payments, broaden access to digital financial services, and promote financial inclusion in South Africa,” the bank said.
The purchase includes a cash payment of R300 million, with the remaining R100 million structured as a deferred earn-out linked to Capitec’s share price and milestone achievements over the next three years.
Walletdoc’s founders, Leonard Shenker and Dan Wagner, have led the company as co-CEOs since its inception. Shenker, an electrical engineer from Wits University, previously served as executive director at payments company Drawcard and has become a leading voice on payment security and remote commerce.
Wagner, a professional game developer trained at the DigiPen Institute of Technology, initially worked in game design and hardware distribution before co-founding South Africa’s first console game development company, I-Imagine Interactive. His early achievements include releasing the first South African console game for Xbox and developing licensed titles for PS3, PSP, Wii, and Nintendo DS.
Walletdoc started as a simple bill-pay app for traffic fines and utility payments but quickly scaled into a cutting-edge payments processor. Early partnerships with Absa and Easy Pay saw the company processing R700 million in monthly payments within its first year. Today, Walletdoc processes billions of rands annually, powering millions of transactions every month through its PCI-compliant cloud architecture.
The company has also pioneered Visa Tokenisation in Sub-Saharan Africa, developed proprietary 3DS SDKs for iOS and Android, and piloted card payment authentication using passkeys — a first in South Africa. Its proprietary EFT platform, Bank2Bank, enabled the fastest integration with Capitec Pay, significantly increasing processing volumes and revenue.
With the acquisition, Capitec aims to strengthen its digital payments ecosystem, making financial services more accessible and affordable for South Africans while leveraging Walletdoc’s innovative technology and homegrown talent.
