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Financial Software and Systems (FSS), an India-headquartered global leader in payments technology and transaction processing, has made a strategic investment in Ecentric Payment Systems, a Standard Bank-backed payment processor based in South Africa. According to a joint statement released on Monday, FSS said it acquired a 46 percent stake in the South African fintech through a combination of primary and secondary investments, with a potential to increase its stakeholding.

According to the statement, the FSS investment will provide the Indian firm an ideal platform to build a fintech hub focused on the development of payment solutions tailored to the unique requirements of the African payment market. Ecentric – which is an investment of Standard Bank, the largest African banking group by assets, and not a division of the bank – said it will leverage FSS’ payments technology expertise and use the investment proceeds to fuel its next phase of market growth.

The South African payment switching provider has a customer portfolio that comprises of over fifty Tier-1 banks and retailers, spanning domestic and other African markets. FSS’s expertise includes issuance, omnichannel acquiring, digital banking, processing and switching, ATM managed services, ATM and POS monitoring, reconciliation and settlement, digital security and payment analytics.

“We see the investment as an extraordinary opportunity to achieve a leadership position in the African payments space,” Nagaraj Mylandla, Managing Director of FSS. “The partnership will help us leverage mutual synergies to strengthen our presence in Africa’s largest markets and drive increased growth for FSS payment acquiring and other solutions.”

The company looks to collaborate with Ecentric to expand its market presence by leveraging each other’s strengths to further tap into the fastest-growing market for merchant processing and payment solution in Africa.

“The introduction of FSS as a Strategic Equity Partner into Ecentric will further cement Ecentric’s position as a leading provider of value-added payment services to its clients and accelerate its growth into new products, across new markets in Africa as well as furthering commercial ties between Africa and India,” Larry McCarthy, Head Strategic Investments and Alliances at Standard Bank Group.

Hassen Sheik, CEO of Ecentric, said the financial and strategic backing from FSS, will help Ecentric accelerate product innovation and grow the business in its home market as well as expand to more countries. “This backing brings us a step closer to achieving our goal of creating a ubiquitous and universal digital payment acceptance market in the continent,” added Sheik.