Connecting people to their money, and their money to the world
Paytec provides integrated vertical financial infrastructure to enable deep financial inclusion where it is needed most.
As the investment holding company of the Paytec Group, we own and support businesses operating across payments, banking infrastructure, stablecoins, digital assets, treasury services and financial technology. Our focus is simple: acquire, build and scale essential financial infrastructure in markets where demand is growing faster than supply.
We believe the next billion users of financial services will come from markets that traditional finance has failed to serve.
Three value pillars
Financial infrastructure
We invest in businesses that provide the foundational rails of the financial system: payments, custody, treasury, settlement, compliance and digital asset infrastructure. These businesses benefit from long-term structural demand and increasing network effects.
Integrated ownership
Rather than investing in isolated products, we build and own vertically integrated ecosystems. By combining regulated operations, proprietary technology and distribution networks, our portfolio companies can capture value across the entire financial services stack.
Long-term value creation
We take a patient, owner-operator approach to capital allocation. We focus on durable businesses, strong governance, prudent risk management and sustainable growth that compounds shareholder value over decades.
Growth strategy
The next decade of financial growth will not happen where finance already works.
Our focus is the Global South. The regions where mobile adoption has outrun financial infrastructure, and where the World Bank estimates well over a billion adults remain outside the formal financial system.
Africa
Our proving ground. Live regulated operations in South Africa, with Namibia, Malawi and Zimbabwe in progress — expanding deliberately along the trade and remittance corridors our users already travel.
South-East Asia
Mobile-first populations, deep remittance flows and regulators actively courting inclusion-focused infrastructure. A natural second theatre for the playbook proven in Africa.
Latin America
High smartphone penetration alongside persistent underbanking — conditions made for vertically integrated challengers with regulatory patience.
Leadership
Investor facing leadership with a wealth of experience.
Leigh Higgins
Leigh has over 30 years’ experience in the finance industry in Guernsey, initially working for a firm of chartered accountants before moving to the fiduciary sector in 1995. He joined a locally owner-managed firm as a client accountant before moving to Sovereign Channel Islands in 2013 to head up its trust & company team in Guernsey, becoming a director in 2014. Leigh joined the board of Paytec Capital at its inception in 2023. He is a fellow of the Association of Accounting Technicians.
Maureen Perrot
Maureen joined Sovereign in October 2018 and was appointed to its board in September 2022. She is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, with over 10 years’ experience in trust and estate management. Maureen joined the board of Paytec Capital at its inception in 2023.
Daniel van Tonder
Daniel spent 15 years at Barclays Capital, and stepped down at director level in 2015, leveraging his corporate banking and treasury management experience to become the founder of several fintech companies. Daniel is the co-founder and CEO of Zeam Limited, a subsidiary of Paytec Capital.
Mike Bell
Mike is a career CFO, with experience spanning notable institutions such as Reunert, PPC, Oceana Group, Colliers, Clearwater Technology, Taylor Hopkinson, Dycem, Finnovate Advisory and Mokala Group. Mike is a non-executive director on the board of Zeam Limited, a subsidiary of Paytec Capital.
Group structure
Paytec Capital is a vertically integrated financial infrastructure holding company. The group is organised in four layers, each owned and operated inside the regulated perimeter.
“We didn’t buy it. It didn’t have a price. We acquired it by putting ourselves in it.”
Custody, code and infrastructure
Financial infrastructure is only as trustworthy as the code it runs on and the custody behind it. We own the entity that writes, operates and secures the platform, so the group’s most critical capabilities — custody, key management and core infrastructure — are never outsourced.
MiCA regulated (in application) entity. Provides custodial services and is the builder and technical operator of the Zeam Platform.
Stablecoin operations
MINT · MARKETS · TREASURY
A stablecoin is a promise kept by structure. Issuance sits in single-purpose, bankruptcy-remote reserve companies; liquidity is made by dedicated market-making entities; and the flow of funds runs through regulated treasury companies. Separating mint, markets and treasury keeps every part of the promise independently accountable.
Alpine Shield Ltd
GuernseySingle-purpose bankruptcy-remote reserve holding company behind the issuance of USDZ, EURZ, GBPZ, XAUZ and BTCZ.
Zeam Mint (Pty) Ltd
South AfricaSingle-purpose bankruptcy-remote reserve holding company behind the issuance of ZARZ.
Zeam Mauritius
MauritiusGroup treasury entity, regulated by the MFSC as an authorised Treasury Management Service Provider and a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP, Class MO and R), and by the Bank of Mauritius as a Payment Service Provider (PSP, in application).
Group treasury entity, regulated by FINTRAC as an authorised Money Services Business (MSB).
Zeam Markets (Pty) Ltd
South AfricaMarket-making and proprietary trading entity.
Market-making and proprietary trading entity.
Anchors
Anchors are the local bridges between digital value and traditional financial systems — the licensed presence that lets users move between the Zeam Platform and the banking system, mobile money, cash networks and retailer Point-of-Sale, in their own market. A single UK entity carries the model into 55 countries, with locally incorporated entities (subsidiaries and/or accredited partners) where regulation requires them.
Zeam Limited operates in 55 countries as a foreign branch of the UK entity, with the following locally incorporated exceptions:
- Zeam SA (Pty) Ltd South Africa LEI ↗
- Zeam Funds (Pvt) Ltd Zimbabwe
- Zeam Payment Technology (Pty) Ltd Namibia
Regulated by the South African Reserve Bank as a registered Third Party Payment Provider (TPPP) and authorised to process payments and debit orders on behalf of clients.
Shared services
Common functions run once, well, for the whole group: a unified global customer-service operation, independent Swiss-domiciled governance and oversight, and a dedicated vehicle that aligns staff ownership with shareholders.
Global customer service
Provides a unified customer service with agents in Cape Town, Nairobi, Manila and Bangkok.
Governance and oversight
Citadelle Alpine S.A.
Vaud, SwitzerlandSwiss-domiciled oversight and governance entity, with a role as stewardship, governance and instruction authority.
Employee and contractor share incentive holdings
Radiant Capital Limited
GuernseyHolding and administration of staff-held shares in the group.
By invitation
Paytec Capital works with a small circle of sophisticated private investors.
Participation is by invitation. If you have received one or would like to begin a conversation, our investor relations team responds personally.