TurnStay

What TurnStay does

TurnStay is a Cape Town-headquartered fintech, founded in 2021, that operates a borderless finance platform purpose-built for African travel businesses. It serves safari lodges, game reserves, tour operators, villa rental agencies, and travel technology platforms, helping them accept international card payments from predominantly non-African guests while reducing the cost and friction of cross-border settlement. The platform is organized into three core product tiers—Accept (Borderless Checkout, Payment Links, Virtual Cards, Developer API), Scale (multi-account management, refunds, chargebacks, fraud detection under a merchant-of-record model), and Optimise (smart routing, integrations, reporting)—plus a separate Treasury module providing multi-currency wallets, deposits, withdrawals, transfers, and virtual accounts. Underlying technology includes payment orchestration across multiple PSPs (Stripe, Paystack, Peach Payments, Nedbank, Standard Bank), stablecoin-based settlement, smart routing to maximize checkout success rates, and PCI DSS v4.0.1-compliant hosted infrastructure. Revenue is generated via transaction-based take rates reported as low as 1.6% for villa rental agencies and averaging materially below the 5–7% typical of incumbent processors serving African merchants, with pricing delivered through consultative enterprise sales and a developer-facing API. The company is venture-backed, having raised a $300K pre-seed in July 2024 and a $2M seed in August 2025, and operates through a multi-jurisdiction group structure (US parent The Tern Group Inc., plus entities in South Africa, the UK, Estonia, and Namibia) to serve cross-border payment flows. Named enterprise customers include Singita, Thornybush, Safari.com, Arathusa, Madekwe, and Doringbos, with cumulative transaction volume cited at R1B+ ZAR and 50,000+ transactions processed.

Name

TurnStay

Legal name

TurnStay (Pty) Ltd

Website

https://turnstay.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

TurnStay is a South African fintech that provides African travel businesses—safari lodges, tour operators, and villa rental agencies—with a borderless payment platform that lowers international card fees by up to 70%, enables multi-currency settlement, and acts as merchant of record across multi-jurisdiction entities.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cross-Border Payment Processing / Travel Fintech

NAICS

Financial Transactions Processing, Reserve, and Clearinghouse Activities (52232), Travel Agencies (561510)

SIC

Security & Commodity Brokers, Dealers, Exchanges & Services (6200)

akta.pro primary industry

Merchant-of-Record (MoR) & Payment Facilitation (PayFac) Infrastructure (FSAGABAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Loyalty, Points Currency & Stored Value Payments (THALAHAK), Merchant Payment Gateways (API/Hosted Checkout) (FSAMACAA), Crypto Payment Gateways & Checkout APIs (FSADAIAA)

Keywords

• Payment orchestration
• Cross-border payments
• Merchant of record
• Travel fintech
• Multi-currency processing

Headquarters

HQ city

Cape Town

HQ country

South Africa

HQ region

Africa

Offices6 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Transaction Fees: TurnStay charges transaction fees on each payment processed through their platform. The fee is earned, due and payable upon receipt of authorization for a transaction. The company offers competitive rates (as low as 1.6% for villa rental agencies) that are significantly lower than traditional payment processors, claiming fee reductions of up to 70% for clients. Fees are deducted from settlement amounts or invoiced monthly.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

TurnStay is a payment orchestration and merchant-of-record platform built specifically for African travel businesses such as safari lodges, tour operators, and villa rental agencies. It enables these merchants to accept international card payments (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and stablecoins) at significantly reduced fees (up to 70% lower than traditional processors), supports multi-currency billing and settlement, and handles PCI compliance, fraud, chargebacks, and sales tax obligations on the merchant's behalf. Its product suite spans hosted checkout, payment links, virtual card processing for OTA bookings, a developer API, multi-account management, smart payment routing, and a multi-currency treasury wallet system.

Product overview

TurnStay is a unified borderless finance platform specifically designed for African travel businesses, comprising three core product tiers (Accept, Scale, Optimise) plus a Treasury module. The Accept tier provides payment acceptance via Borderless Checkout, Payment Links, Virtual Cards, and Developer API. The Scale tier delivers merchant-of-record services including Multi-Account Management, Global Refunds, and Fraud Detection. The Optimise tier offers Smart Routing, Integrations, and Reporting to maximize checkout success rates. The Treasury module provides multi-currency wallet infrastructure with wallets, deposits, withdrawals, transfers, and virtual accounts. The platform processes payments in multiple currencies, automatically handling FX conversion, and claims to reduce booking fees by up to 70% while enabling 48-hour settlements and 50%+ higher conversion rates.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• TurnStay Accept The core payment acceptance module enabling African travel businesses to accept international card payments via hosted checkout, payment links, virtual cards, and developer API. Reduces transaction costs by up to 70% and supports multi-currency processing with automatic FX conversion.
• TurnStay Scale Merchant-of-record service module handling multi-account management, refunds, chargebacks, and fraud detection. TurnStay acts as the merchant of record, managing payment processing complexity so clients can focus on growth.
• TurnStay Optimise Optimization module providing integrations, platforms, smart routing, and reporting tools. Designed to boost checkout success rates by 50%+ by allowing customers to pay in their own currency and leveraging intelligent payment routing.
• TurnStay Developer API RESTful Payments API enabling developers to integrate TurnStay payment processing into websites, property management systems (PMS), or custom applications. Supports creating payment intents, hosted checkout or server-to-server processing, refunds, card-on-file tokenization, virtual card payments, webhooks, and multi-currency transactions. SDK examples are provided in cURL, Python, Node.js, and C# across staging and production environments.
• TurnStay Treasury Multi-currency wallet infrastructure service providing wallets, deposits, withdrawals, transfers, and virtual accounts for managing travel business funds across different currencies. Operates as a separate API from the Payments API with its own base URL (treasury.turnstay.com).

Quantifiable outcome

• Reduce booking fees by up to 70%
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration10 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• VisacoreTechnology or IntegrationCard network partner enabling international card payments. Listed as a partner on the TurnStay website footer along with other major card networks.
• MastercardcoreTechnology or IntegrationCard network partner enabling international card payments. Listed as a partner on the TurnStay website.
• Apple PaysupportingTechnology or IntegrationDigital wallet payment method supported on TurnStay platform for convenient mobile payments.
• American ExpresssupportingTechnology or IntegrationCard network partner enabling American Express card payments on the TurnStay platform.
• StripecoreTechnology or IntegrationPayment service provider used by TurnStay for payment processing. Mentioned in Terms and Conditions as one of the third-party PSPs.
• PaystacksupportingTechnology or IntegrationAfrican payment service provider used by TurnStay for payment processing in African markets.
• Peach PaymentssupportingTechnology or IntegrationSouth African payment platform used by TurnStay for payment processing.
• NedbanksupportingTechnology or IntegrationSouth African bank and payment service provider used by TurnStay for payment processing and settlements.
• Standard BanksupportingTechnology or IntegrationSouth African bank and payment service provider used by TurnStay for payment processing and settlements.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Flutterwave: Pan-African payment processor offering multi-currency processing, payment APIs, and merchant onboarding across the continent. Comparable to TurnStay as a competing African payments infrastructure provider serving cross-border merchants, though Flutterwave serves broader verticals beyond travel.
• Peach Payments: South African payment service provider offering card processing, payment gateway, and checkout solutions across Africa. Comparable to TurnStay as a domestic South African PSP that also targets multi-currency and African expansion; TurnStay currently routes through Peach Payments but competes for the same travel merchants.
• Verto: Cross-border B2B payments platform serving emerging markets with multi-currency business accounts and FX. Comparable to TurnStay in cross-border payments and treasury/wallet functionality, although Verto focuses more on B2B transfers than travel-specific MoR services.
• Stitch: South African fintech providing payment infrastructure, financial data connectivity, and account-to-account payments for African businesses. Comparable to TurnStay as a South Africa-based payments infrastructure startup targeting enterprise merchants with developer-grade APIs.
• Spotnana: Travel-specific fintech platform offering corporate travel booking, payments, and supplier payments infrastructure. Comparable to TurnStay as a travel-focused payments and booking infrastructure player, though Spotnana is more concentrated on corporate travel than African leisure.

Broad incumbents

• Paystack: Pan-African online payment gateway owned by Stripe, serving businesses across Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and Kenya. Comparable to TurnStay as an African payment gateway TurnStay itself uses, and a potential competitor as Paystack expands into more verticals and currencies.
• Cellulant: Pan-African digital payments platform providing payment APIs, mobile money, and banking integrations across 35+ countries. Comparable to TurnStay in cross-border African payment infrastructure serving merchants and businesses with multi-country reach.
• Network International (DPO Group): Large-scale payment processor across the Middle East and Africa following the acquisition of DPO Group. Comparable to TurnStay as an Africa-focused payment processor for merchants, with broader scale and a wider product set.

Emerging players

• Duffel: Travel API platform enabling travel businesses to sell flights, hotels, and ancillary services with embedded payments. Comparable to TurnStay in serving travel merchants with developer-first infrastructure, though Duffel focuses on distribution rather than cross-border fee reduction.
• Chipper Cash: African cross-border payments platform for consumers and businesses with multi-currency wallets. Comparable to TurnStay in cross-border African payment flows and stablecoin usage, though Chipper Cash is more retail-led than MoR-led.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Subsidiaries5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors8 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about TurnStay