Johannesburg – South Africa's travel-centric Fintech Turnstay has raised USD 2 million (over R34 million) in a seed round led by First Circle Capital, with participation from US and African VCS, including TLCOM capital, ENZA capital, sharp ventures, CVVC and fair ventures.
This round will drive the rapid expansion of turnstays across African markets and enhance fintech infrastructure for travel and tourism operators.
Founded by Fintech Tech veterans Alon Stern (Ex-Prodigy Finance) and James Hedley (co-founder of Quickt, acquired by Ticketmaster), Turnstay tackles systemic inefficiencies in Africa's travel space.
Turnstay addresses structural challenges in African tourism. High transaction costs, international payment failures, and delays in settlements that affect margins and cash flows.
Through a recording model combined with payment orchestration, Turnstay processes card payments in the traveler's home country and uses stubcoins to resolve funds locally.
This approach reduces payment fees by up to 70%, reduces payment times and improves booking conversion rates.
“Turnstay is redefineing travel bookings for Africa and other emerging markets,” says Agnes Astray Tonakisle, a partner at First Circle Capital, an early-stage fintex specialist fund based in Africa.
“Focusing on the travel and tourism segment, Turnstay is able to create sticky, defensive moats that provide a great customer experience and set them apart from generalist payment providers.
“With strong early traction, exceptional founding teams and large, undeveloped markets, Turnstay is laying the foundation for the next generation of transnational travel infrastructure.”
The platform is integrated with major booking engines and property management systems, making it easy for travel operators to adopt without disrupting existing workflows.
Turnstaying allows for more direct bookings and better unit economics to local operators by providing an alternative to global online travel agents that often bill high committees and control cash flow.
The seed round follows a $300,000 preseed by DFS Lab and DCG in July 2024.
Turnstay CEO Aron Stern said:
“Since last year's pre-seed round, we have processed more than R250 million deals and secured partnerships with industry leaders.
“This examines our approach and demonstrates the substantial value we create for the industry.
“We're not just cutting costs, we're making it possible for African travel companies to compete on a level playing field with international platforms.”
With tourism to emerging markets steadily growing and Africa sees an increase in international travel, there is a clear demand for more efficient fintech infrastructure.
Turnstay is building the tools to meet that need.
This funding is to accelerate turnstay revenue growth and ensure the company has a key partnership with industry leaders.
“The combination of reduced payment processing fees and speed of payment times creates an attractive value proposition for our clients,” explains co-founder and COO James Hedley.
“While traditional African payment processing costs over 7% per transaction, our solution consistently offers savings of up to 70% while improving the overall booking experience for international travelers.”
The travel and tourism industry is an important economic driver across Africa, employing over 6 million people and processing over USD 100 billion each year.
However, high payment processing costs have African operators historically disadvantaged when competing with international booking platforms.
Turnstay's infrastructure addresses this by having access to the same cost-effective payment processing that global travel giants like Booking.com enjoy.
With this latest funding, Turnstay plans to expand its client base across major African markets and continue its payment technology to meet the growing demand for seamless, cost-effective international payment solutions in the travel sector.
