South African fintech startup TurnStay has processed more than ZAR1 billion, or about $61.5 million, in travel payments during the first six months of 2026.
The company, TurnStay, reached the milestone just three years after its founding as it works to make international payments easier and cheaper for African travel businesses. Disrupt Africa reported the development on August 12, 2026.
The figure is more than another impressive fintech growth number. It highlights a problem that many African travel businesses face: getting paid by international customers can be expensive, complicated and slow.
TurnStay is building its business around solving that problem.
What Is TurnStay?
TurnStay is a South African fintech startup that provides payment and financial infrastructure for African travel and tourism businesses.
Its platform allows travel businesses to accept payments from international customers while managing different currencies, payment methods, settlements and other financial operations through one system.
The company focuses specifically on travel businesses, including safari lodges, tour operators and villa agencies. That specialised approach is important because international travel payments come with challenges that ordinary local transactions do not.
A traveller might pay from the United States in dollars, while the business operates in South Africa, Kenya or Tanzania and ultimately needs to receive funds in a local or preferred currency.
TurnStay is designed to handle much of that complexity behind the scenes. For a South African fintech focused on international travel, solving these payment challenges is central to TurnStay’s business model.
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TurnStay Processes $61.5 Million in Six Months
The South African fintech processed more than ZAR1 billion ($61.5 million) in travel payments during the first six months of 2026, according to Disrupt Africa. The milestone is particularly notable because TurnStay was founded only three years ago.
The company has also moved beyond its early fundraising stage. After raising a $300,000 pre-seed round in 2024 and $2 million in seed funding in 2025, TurnStay is now preparing for a Series A funding round to support its continued expansion across Africa.
Its growth comes as African travel businesses increasingly need payment infrastructure capable of handling international customers, but why is this such a difficult problem in the first place?
Why Are Travel Payments Difficult for African Businesses?
Imagine a traveller in London booking a safari in Tanzania. From the customer’s perspective, the process should be simple: choose a package, pay in a familiar currency and receive a booking confirmation.
For the travel company, however, that single transaction can involve international card networks, payment processors, foreign exchange, banking systems and cross-border settlement.
Every additional layer can introduce costs or delays.
International Payment Friction
African travel businesses often serve customers from several countries at the same time. A safari operator could receive bookings from customers paying in US dollars, euros or pounds while its own expenses are handled in an African currency.
Managing those transactions through separate systems can create additional administrative work. Payment failures can also become a problem.
If an international traveller cannot complete a booking using their preferred payment method, the business risks losing the sale altogether.
Currency Conversion and FX Costs
Foreign exchange creates another layer of friction. Customers generally prefer paying in a currency they understand, while businesses need to receive and manage funds in currencies that work for their operations.
TurnStay says its platform allows customers to pay in currencies such as USD, EUR, GBP and ZAR, while businesses can settle funds in a preferred currency.
That can make the checkout experience easier for international travellers while reducing some of the operational complexity for merchants.
However, currency conversion can still involve fees. TurnStay’s terms state that foreign exchange fees may apply when the company arranges currency conversion for a client.
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Cross-Border Settlement Challenges
Accepting a payment is only half of the process. The business also needs to receive its money efficiently and know exactly how much it will receive after processing and conversion.
TurnStay’s payment system routes transactions for travel bookings before settling cleared funds with the client in its chosen settlement currency.
This is particularly relevant for businesses that handle high-value international bookings.
How TurnStay Is Tackling the Payment Problem
The South African fintech combines payment processing, payment orchestration and local settlement into a platform designed specifically for travel.
Instead of requiring a business to manage every payment relationship separately, TurnStay aims to bring multiple payment capabilities under one roof.
Lower Transaction Costs
One of TurnStay’s biggest selling points is reducing the cost of international card payments. The company says businesses can cut transaction fees by up to 70%. This is a TurnStay claim and should not be treated as an independently verified industry-wide saving.
Disrupt Africa reports that traditional local processing for foreign travel bookings can cost merchants as much as 8% of a transaction, while TurnStay says some of its clients pay from as little as 1.6%.
For travel businesses processing large booking volumes, lower payment costs could have a meaningful effect on revenue. This gives the South African fintech another way to reduce friction between international travellers and African travel businesses.
Multi-Currency Payments
TurnStay also focuses on how customers experience the checkout process. Its platform supports payments in multiple currencies, including USD, EUR, GBP and ZAR, while allowing businesses to settle in their preferred currency.
The logic is straightforward.
When travellers see prices and payment options in a familiar currency, there is less uncertainty at checkout. TurnStay says its multi-currency approach can also help improve checkout success rates.
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Local Settlement
One of TurnStay’s central ideas is simple: sell globally and collect locally. The company says its platform connects global payment processors with local payment methods and settlement networks, allowing African travel businesses to serve international customers without having to build every payment connection themselves.
For safari lodges, TurnStay advertises settlement within 48 hours of checkout. Actual settlement times can vary depending on the transaction and applicable arrangements.
Faster access to revenue can also help businesses manage their cash flow more effectively.
Payment Links, APIs and Smart Routing
TurnStay’s platform extends beyond standard card payments. It offers payment links, virtual cards, a developer API and smart routing as part of its broader payment infrastructure.
Payment links allow businesses to request money online without building a complicated checkout system. The developer API, meanwhile, is designed to connect businesses with payment networks and settlement infrastructure through a single integration.
Smart routing adds another layer by helping determine how transactions should be processed. In simple terms, payment orchestration is about coordinating multiple payment routes behind one customer-facing experience.
The traveller sees a checkout, while the infrastructure handles much of the complexity underneath it.
What TurnStay’s Growth Means for African Travel Businesses
The significance of TurnStay’s growth goes beyond one fintech company. African travel businesses need payment infrastructure that can support international customers without forcing them to navigate unnecessary financial complexity.
That includes safari lodges, tour operators, villa agencies and travel platforms.
TurnStay says its clients include established travel brands such as Singita, Safari.com, Londolozi and The Capital. For these businesses, payment infrastructure can directly affect the booking experience.
A traveller who can pay easily in a familiar currency is less likely to encounter unnecessary friction before completing a reservation. That makes payments more than a back-office function.
They are part of the customer journey. The success of the South African fintech also shows why specialised payment infrastructure is becoming increasingly important for Africa’s travel industry.
TurnStay’s Expansion Beyond South Africa
Although TurnStay is a South African fintech, its ambitions extend across the continent. Disrupt Africa reports that the company has growing activity in Mauritius, Kenya, Tanzania and Botswana, while maintaining South Africa as its current base.
This expansion reflects the fragmented nature of the African travel market.
A company serving international travellers may need to operate across several countries, each with its own currencies, banking systems and payment infrastructure.
Building a payment platform that can work across those markets could therefore give TurnStay a broader opportunity than the South African market alone. Its goal is essentially to make cross-border payments feel less complicated for businesses operating across Africa.
What’s Next for TurnStay?
The next major milestone to watch is TurnStay’s planned Series A funding round. The company says the funding will support its continued expansion across the continent.
That comes after the startup raised $300,000 in pre-seed funding in 2024 and a further $2 million seed round in 2025, but future growth will depend on more than transaction volume.
TurnStay will need to continue demonstrating reliable payment processing, strong security, regulatory compliance and efficient settlement as it enters more markets. The company says its platform is PCI DSS v4.0.1 certified, reflecting its focus on payment security and data protection.
For a fintech handling international transactions, those areas will become increasingly important as its customer base grows. The next stage of growth could determine how far the South African fintech can take this specialised payment model across Africa.
What TurnStay’s Growth Says About Africa’s Fintech Ecosystem
The biggest takeaway from TurnStay’s $61.5 million milestone may not be the figure itself. It is the type of problem the company is solving.
Africa’s fintech sector is increasingly moving beyond basic digital payments toward specialised infrastructure designed around specific industries.
Travel is a natural example. The industry combines international customers, multiple currencies, cross-border transactions and complex settlement requirements.
That creates opportunities for fintech companies that understand both financial technology and the industries they serve.
South African fintech TurnStay sits directly at that intersection, combining financial technology with the specific payment needs of African travel businesses. Its growth shows how a South African fintech startup can build around a specialised African problem and pursue a market that extends well beyond its home country.
The progress of this South African fintech reflects a broader shift toward specialised financial infrastructure across Africa. The bigger opportunity may be in making it easier for African businesses to participate in global commerce without carrying unnecessarily high payment costs.
Conclusion
TurnStay’s processing of more than $61.5 million in travel payments during the first half of 2026 gives the South African fintech a significant growth milestone just three years after its founding. But the more important story is the payment problem behind the number.
African travel businesses serving international customers need reliable ways to accept foreign currencies, manage cross-border payments and receive their funds efficiently.
TurnStay is building around that gap with multi-currency payments, payment links, virtual cards, APIs, payment orchestration and local settlement infrastructure. As the company prepares for its Series A and expands into more African markets, its progress will be worth watching.
For the wider African fintech ecosystem, TurnStay’s growth offers another example of how specialised financial infrastructure could help African businesses compete more effectively in the global economy.
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