Tenacity Financial Services

What Tenacity Financial Services does

Tenacity Financial Services is the captive private label credit card programme manager of the Pepkor Group, operating as a division of Pepkor Trading (Pty) Ltd since April 2007. It runs end-to-end credit card operations, including application capture (online and SMS), credit decisioning support, contact centre servicing, collections, fraud monitoring, and back-office technology, for seven Pepkor-affiliated retail brands: Pep, Ackermans, Ayana, Refinery, Legit, Dunns, and Tekkie Town. The business is supervised by the National Credit Regulator (registration NCRCP 13053) and holds Financial Services Provider authorisation, operating across South Africa, Namibia, Eswatini, and Botswana.

Name

Tenacity Financial Services

Legal name

Tenacity Financial Services, a division of Pepkor Trading (Pty) Ltd

Website

https://tenacityinc.co.za

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

501–1,000 employees

Short description

Tenacity Financial Services is the captive private label credit card programme manager of Pepkor Group, operating end-to-end credit, collections, and cardholder servicing for seven Pepkor retail brands (Pep, Ackermans, Dunns, Refinery, Tekkie Town, Ayana, Legit) across South Africa, Namibia, Eswatini, and Botswana.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Private Label Credit Card Management

NAICS

Credit Card Issuing (52221), Sales Financing (522220)

SIC

Personal Credit Institutions (6141)

akta.pro primary industry

Private Label / Store Credit Cards (FSAKABAC)

Keywords

• Private label credit cards
• Retail credit programmes
• Store card management
• Consumer credit services
• Credit programme management

Headquarters

HQ city

Cape Town

HQ country

South Africa

HQ region

Africa

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Private label credit card programmes for retailers: Operates private label store card programmes on behalf of retailers, earning revenue from credit/financing extended to end consumers across South Africa, Namibia, Eswatini and Botswana; multi-year embedded relationship with Pepkor Group retailers since April 2007.
2. Cardholder payments and collections: Collections on outstanding card balances through in-store payments, EFT, debit order, instant EFT (Ozow), mobile/internet banking, USSD and Flash shops; revenue tied to credit book performance.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Core offering

Tenacity Financial Services manages private label credit card programmes for retailers within the Pepkor Group across South Africa, Namibia, Eswatini, and Botswana. It operates branded store cards for seven retailers (Ackermans, Pep, Dunns, Refinery, Tekkie Town, Ayana, Legit) on a shared technology and operations backbone. The offering covers end-to-end credit lifecycle management including application capture (online, SMS, in-store), credit decisioning support, contact centre servicing, collections, fraud monitoring, and multi-channel self-service via USSD, WhatsApp, and web.

Product overview

Tenacity Financial Services operates a single core platform — Private Label Credit Card Programme Management — delivered as a managed service to Pepkor Group retailers. On top of this shared credit-operations backbone, Tenacity runs branded store card products for each affiliated retailer: the Ackermans Store Card, Pep Account Card, Refinery Store Card, Tekkie Town Account, Dunns Store Card, Ayana Credit, and Legit Credit. The unified platform underpins application capture (online and SMS), credit decisioning support, contact centre servicing, collections, fraud monitoring, multi-channel self-service (USSD, WhatsApp, and account self-service), and account repayment via in-store cash, EFT, debit order, mobile/internet banking, and integrated instant-EFT through Ozow.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Ackermans Store Card Private label credit card issued in partnership with Pepkor's Ackermans retail brand; cardholders can apply online, via SMS (to 34413), or at store, and manage accounts through a dedicated USSD line (*130*602#) and WhatsApp channel.
• Pep Account Card Private label credit card for Pep stores; customers can apply online, via SMS (to 34512), or at Pep branches, with dedicated self-service via USSD (*120*3012#) and a WhatsApp support channel.
• Refinery Store Card Private label credit card offered to Refinery store customers, supporting online application and SMS-based sign-up (to 39547); serviced under Tenacity's shared self-service USSD code (*120*27587#).
• Tekkie Town Account Private label credit card for Tekkie Town footwear retailers, with online and SMS (to 34001) application channels and integrated into Tenacity's shared self-service platform.
• Dunns Store Card Private label credit card for Dunns retail customers, available via online application and SMS (to 41533); backed by Tenacity's multi-channel servicing infrastructure including USSD self-service.
• Ayana Credit Private label credit card issued for Ayana stores, applied for through Ayana's online portal and serviced via Tenacity's shared USSD self-service platform.
• Legit Credit (A-Plus) Private label credit product for Legit ("A-Plus") customers, applied for via the Legit website and serviced through Tenacity's shared USSD self-service channel.
• Private Label Credit Card Programme Management Tenacity's core managed-service offering: end-to-end management of retailer in-store credit card programmes for Pepkor Group affiliates across South Africa, Namibia, Eswatini, and Botswana. Includes credit lifecycle management, contact centre operations, collections, fraud monitoring, and back-office technology support.

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• DirectAxis: DirectAxis is a South African consumer credit provider offering personal loans and credit products to middle- and lower-income consumers. It competes with Tenacity for the same underlying credit demand that drives Pepkor store card balances, but through direct lending rather than retailer programme management.
• Capitec Bank: Capitec is South Africa's largest retail bank serving mass-market consumers with credit, transactional and savings products. It overlaps with Tenacity's customer demographic and competes for the same lower-income credit demand, but at much broader scale and with a full banking licence rather than a single-retailer card programme model.
• African Bank: African Bank is a South African retail bank focused on unsecured personal loans and credit to mass-market and lower-income consumers. It is comparable to Tenacity in target customer segment and credit product mix, but operates as a full bank rather than as a retailer-affiliated private label programme manager.
• Discovery Bank: Discovery Bank is a South African digital bank offering credit cards, overdrafts and transactional banking to Discovery's client base. It is comparable to Tenacity as a South African consumer credit card issuer, but with a different distribution model and a higher-income customer focus.
• Bayport Financial Services: Bayport provides personal loans, store credit and payroll-deduction lending across Southern Africa to a similar mass-market customer profile. It overlaps with Tenacity in unsecured consumer credit but competes via employer partnerships rather than retailer-branded store cards.

Emerging players

• PayJustNow: PayJustNow is a South African buy-now-pay-later platform integrated with major online and in-store retailers. It competes with Tenacity for the same point-of-sale credit moment among Pepkor's customer base, offering interest-free instalment plans as an alternative to a store card revolving balance.
• TymeBank (including MoreTyme BNPL): TymeBank is a South African digital bank offering transactional accounts and credit products including the MoreTyme buy-now-pay-later facility at retailers. It is comparable to Tenacity as a digitally-led credit provider targeting mass-market South African consumers at point of sale.

Direct peers

• RCS (Retail Card Services / RCS Group): RCS is one of South Africa's largest private label and store card operators, running credit programmes for retailers such as Edgars, Jet and others. It is the closest direct peer to Tenacity given the shared model of managing third-party retailer private label credit card programmes at scale.
• TFG Money Solutions (formerly The Foschini Merchant Capital): TFG Money Solutions operates the in-house private label credit card programmes for TFG group retailers (Foschini, @home, Sportscene, Markham). It mirrors Tenacity's captive-style model of running multiple retailer store cards from a single platform within a major retail conglomerate.
• Woolworths Financial Services: Woolworths Financial Services issues and manages the Woolworths-branded store card for the Woolworths retail group. It is comparable to Tenacity as a captive retail-credit arm of a major South African retailer, focused on extending credit to that retailer's customers.

Market position

Strengths1 record

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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 Tenacity Financial Services