Licensed payments, built in Pretoria.
We build the rails that move money for South African businesses — cards, collections, acquiring and lending — under one licensed platform.
We started because the workarounds weren't good enough.
South African businesses have been building around the payments system for years — cash-payroll workarounds for staff without bank accounts, third-party collections that don't hold under audit, gateways stitched together with two banks and a spreadsheet.
We went the other direction. We got the licences, built the platform on top of them, and put it all behind one dashboard. Whether you're a spaza aggregator paying informal traders or an insurer collecting monthly premiums, the same rails run underneath.
We're headquartered in Pretoria, we work with South African banks and regulators every day, and every product we ship has to survive a real customer's month-end before it goes live.
Three things you'll notice within a week of working with us.
We hold the licences, not partners
PASA System Operator, Visa Payment Facilitator, Mastercard card programme and NCR — held directly, not resold.
Built for how SA businesses actually work
Informal income, mixed workforces, cash-heavy operations, thin margins — designed into the product, not treated as edge cases.
Real people, real support
One team from quote to go-live to escalations. Not a ticket-based helpdesk in another time zone.
What each one actually lets us do.
Payments jargon obscures more than it explains. Here's what each licence means in practice.
PASA System Operator
The Payment Association of South Africa licenses System Operators to run the rails that move money between banks. Holding it means we can legally clear DebiCheck and EFT collections ourselves — not through a middleman with their own agenda.
Visa Payment Facilitator
Our Visa Payment Facilitator programme lets us onboard merchants for card acquiring in days rather than weeks, without the merchant needing a direct relationship with a bank acquirer.
Mastercard Card Programme
We operate a Mastercard-issued card programme, which means the cards we issue — AppiaStaff, AppiaSpend, AppiaReward, AppiaCloud, AppiaPro — are real Mastercard cards, spendable anywhere Mastercard is accepted.
NCR Credit Provider
The National Credit Regulator registration lets us operate credit and lending products (PayBeta and AppLend) under South African credit law, with proper affordability assessments and consumer protections.
PCI-DSS
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is the global rulebook for handling card data. Our PCI-DSS certification means card data on our platform is stored, transmitted and processed to the highest published standard.
POPIA
The Protection of Personal Information Act governs how South African companies collect, store and use personal data. Our POPIA compliance means your customer data is handled under law, with clear purpose limitation, consent management and security safeguards.
ISO 27001
The international standard for information security management. Independent auditors verify how we manage risk, protect data and respond to incidents across every part of the business.
The team behind the platform.
Setting strategy and holding the licences.
Day-to-day operations, delivery and customer success.
Platform, engineering and Nexus.
Regulator relationships and ongoing compliance.
Full leadership bios available on request.
Come and see the platform in action.
One call, scoped to your business. We show you exactly what Appiawave would look like for your operation.
Ready to sort out your business payments?
Tell us a bit about your business and we'll get back to you within one working day.