South African travel-focused fintech TurnStay has raised over R34-million ($2-million) in a seed round led by First Circle Capital, with participation from US and African venture capitals including TLCom Capital, Enza Capital, Incisive Ventures, CVVC, and Equitable Ventures.
This aims to fuel TurnStay’s expansion across African markets and enhance its fintech infrastructure for travel and tourism operators. TurnStay is founded by fintech tech veterans Alon Stern (ex-Prodigy Finance) and James Hedley (co-founder of Quicket, acquired by Ticketmaster). The company aims to tackle the systemic inefficiencies in Africa’s travel space.
TurnStay addresses a structural challenge in African tourism: high transaction costs, failed international payments, and delays in settlement that impact margins and cash flow. Through a merchant-of-record model combined with payment orchestration, TurnStay processes card payments in the traveller’s home country and settles funds locally, utilising stablecoins. This approach lowers payment fees by up to 70%, shortens settlement times, and improves booking conversion rates.
“TurnStay is redefining travel bookings for Africa and other emerging markets,” says Agnes Aistleitner Kisuule, partner at First Circle Capital, an Africa-based early stage fintech specialist fund.
“Focusing on the travel and tourism segment, TurnStay can deliver a superior customer experience and build a sticky, defensible moat that sets it apart from generalist payment providers. 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.”
TurnStay integrates with booking engines and property management systems, allowing travel operators to adopt it with minimal changes to existing workflows. By providing an alternative to global online travel agencies, which typically charge commissions and control settlement of funds, TurnStay supports more direct bookings and can reduce commission costs while improving cash-flow control for local operators.
This seed round follows a $300,000 pre-seed in July 2024, by DFS Lab and DCG.
TurnStay CEO Alon Stern says: “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 R250-million in transactions and secured partnerships with industry leaders.
“This validates our approach and demonstrates the substantial value we create for the industry. We’re not just reducing costs – we’re enabling African travel companies to compete on a level playing field with international platforms.”
With tourism to emerging markets growing steadily, and Africa seeing increased international travel, there is a demand for more efficient fintech infrastructure. TurnStay is building tools to meet this need.
Co-founder and COO James Hedley says: “The combination of reduced payment processing fees and faster settlement times creates a compelling value proposition for our clients. While traditional African payment processing can cost over 7% per transaction, our solution consistently delivers savings of up to 70% while improving the overall booking experience for international travellers.”
The travel and tourism industry is a significant contributor to African economies, employing more than six million people and processing over $100-billion annually. High payment processing costs have historically disadvantaged African operators when competing with international booking platforms.
TurnStay’s infrastructure provides access to cost-efficient payment processing comparable to that used by large global platforms, supporting more direct bookings and improved unit economics for local operators.
With the latest funding, TurnStay plans to expand its client base in key African markets and continue developing its payments technology to meet demand for cost-effective cross-border payment solutions in the travel sector.