The question that started TappiPay
I want to tell you why we are building this — not the polished version, the real one.
It started with a number. A merchant we knew was doing decent volume. Good location, loyal customers, real hustle behind the counter every day. Then we looked at his monthly statement and saw the fees line. Thousands of rands. Every month. Just gone — to card networks, to the bank, to the POS machine he was renting at R350 a month.
He knew the fees existed. He just didn’t know how much they added up to.
That’s the thing about small, recurring costs. They’re designed to be easy to ignore.
The maths most merchants never do
Card transaction fees in South Africa sit between 1.5% and 3% per swipe. Doesn’t sound like much. But run the numbers on a business doing R200,000 a month in card payments:
At 2%, that’s R4,000 gone in fees. At 3%, it’s R6,000. Every month. Before rent, before stock, before anything else.
Over a year, R72,000.
For a big chain, that’s noise. For a spaza shop, a hair salon, a trader working six days a week — that’s the difference between hiring someone and running yourself into the ground. Between buying stock upfront and going to a mashonisa because Friday’s sales won’t settle until Monday.
The settlement problem nobody talks about
Speaking of Monday: that’s the other thing that bothered us. In South Africa, card settlements can take one to three business days. Which means if your busiest day is Saturday, your money might arrive Tuesday — if you’re lucky.
Meanwhile your supplier wants payment now. Your staff want payment now. The lights don’t wait for your bank’s clearing cycle.
So merchants float it. Some borrow. Some just go without.
This is the system that’s been sold to small businesses as “accepting card payments.” The privilege of receiving your own money, on someone else’s timeline, at a fee you didn’t negotiate.
Why TappiPay
We didn’t build TappiPay because payments are a cool space to be in. We built it because the gap between what merchants pay and what they should pay is wide enough to drive a truck through — and nobody serving the township economy and the informal sector was doing much about it.
QR-based payments. Fees of 0.3–0.6%. Settlement any time, any day — not on a banking schedule. No machine to rent. No complicated onboarding.
Just a scan. Just your money. Just like that.
We’re early. There’s a long road ahead. But the problem is real, the merchants are real, and we’re not going anywhere.
If you run a business and you’re tired of paying to get paid — I’d genuinely love to talk.
Shoot us an email with your payment processor frustrations as a merchant.
julia@tappipay.co.za
niall@tappipay.co.za
