Littlefish, a South African fintech building white-labelled merchant infrastructure for financial institutions, has raised a $9.5m Series A round.
The fundraise signals renewed institutional confidence in the company following a protracted legal dispute with a former co-founder, while underscoring a broader shift in Africa’s fintech ecosystem: startups are increasingly choosing to build back-end infrastructure for incumbent banks rather than competing with them for end-users.
The round was led by global tech investment firm Partech, with participation from development finance institution Proparco. Crucially, early backers TLcom Capital and Flourish Ventures also returned to participate in the round, a year after backing the company’s seed extension.
The B2B2B Strategy
Founded in 2021 by Brandon Roberts and Neha Kumar, Littlefish provides a unified operating system for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The platform consolidates point-of-sale operations, CRM, inventory management, and payments into a single interface.
However, rather than acquiring SME customers directly — a notoriously capital-intensive play in African markets — Littlefish licenses its software to Tier-1 financial institutions. The banks then offer the white-labelled product to their existing SME client base, allowing the banks to retain the primary customer relationship.
The company currently counts Standard Bank, First National Bank (FNB), and Absa among its domestic clients.
“Our fundamental role is to play more of a connector and an enabler,” said Neha Kumar, co-founder of Littlefish. “The approach we take is not to say what slice of the pie we are trying to keep for ourselves, but rather what allows us to provide this connected, interoperable system for merchants.”
Matthieu Marchand, Principal at Partech, noted that the startup’s ability to onboard major incumbents was a primary driver for the investment. “Littlefish has done something rare: it has built indispensable infrastructure and convinced Africa’s most powerful financial institutions to stake their merchant businesses on it,” he said.
Moving Past the Courtroom
The fresh injection of capital — and the continued participation of TLcom and Flourish — marks a closing chapter on a volatile period for the startup’s cap table.
Throughout 2024, Littlefish was embroiled in a legal battle with its former co-founder, Davith Kahwa. Following a term sheet signed with TLcom Capital and Flourish Ventures in early 2023, the company underwent a corporate restructuring. Through a series of definitive agreements, Kahwa’s 40% equity stake was diluted to 11% and placed on a vesting schedule, while the newly investor-controlled board was granted broad discretion over his performance metrics.
Kahwa resigned his directorship in late 2023 and subsequently sued for a compulsory buyout at the valuation of the initial term sheet ($2.6m).
The case was dismissed by the High Court of South Africa in April 2025. The court ruled that Kahwa had legally acquiesced to the restructuring by signing the definitive agreements. Furthermore, the judge noted that South African corporate law could not be applied, as the startup’s intellectual property was now held by a Delaware-incorporated holding company — a standard restructuring requirement for many US and European venture funds deploying capital in Africa.
Expansion Plans
With the legal overhang resolved, Littlefish will allocate the $9.5m to accelerate product development and expand its geographic footprint.
While deepening its integration with South African banks, the startup plans to leverage its existing banking partners to enter over ten new markets across the continent. Target expansion countries include Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia.
“We’ve proven the model in South Africa, and this capital gives us the runway to deepen those relationships,” said CEO Brandon Roberts. Small businesses typically rely on a fragmented patchwork of spreadsheets, disjointed point-of-sale systems, and separate bank accounts, which creates operational inefficiencies and security vulnerabilities. “The little guys deserve financial infrastructure, too, and we’re building it.”
