South African travel fintech TurnStay has raised $2 million in a seed funding round to expand its payment infrastructure across African markets. The round was led by First Circle Capital, with participation from TLcom Capital, Enza Capital, Incisive Ventures, CVVC, and Equitable Ventures.
Founded by fintech veterans Alon Stern (formerly of Prodigy Finance) and James Hedley (Quicket co-founder, later acquired by Ticketmaster), TurnStay addresses critical inefficiencies in Africa’s travel payments.
Using a Merchant-of-Record model combined with payment orchestration, TurnStay enables customers to pay via card in their home country while settling locally using stablecoins. This approach cuts payment fees by up to 70%, speeds up settlement times, and boosts booking conversions.
“This seed funding represents a major milestone in our mission to make global payment infrastructure accessible to African travel businesses. Since our pre-seed round last year, we’ve processed over ZAR 250 million in transactions and secured partnerships with industry leaders… We’re not just reducing costs – we’re enabling African travel companies to compete on a level playing field with international platforms,” said Alon Stern, CEO of TurnStay.
From the investor side, Agnes Aistleitner Kisuule, Partner at First Circle Capital, added:
“TurnStay is redefining travel bookings for Africa and other emerging markets… With strong early traction, an exceptional founding team, and a massive untapped market, TurnStay is laying the foundation for the next generation of cross-border travel infrastructure.”
This seed round follows TurnStay’s $300,000 pre-seed fundraising in mid-2024 and reflects growing investor confidence in travel infrastructure innovation for emerging markets.
Read more on Tech Gist Africa:
Flood, a South African startup Secures $2.5M in seed funding
Cerebrium, a South African AI startup raises $8.5 million seed funding
Paymenow, a South African fintech startup has secured US$22.5 million in funding
