Grace Ashiru
Capitec Bank has agreed to acquire South African payments fintech, Walletdoc, in a deal valued at R400 million ($23.5 million). This acquisition positions Capitec to own the essential infrastructure of online commerce, which goes beyond simply issuing cards.
The bank will pay R300 million in cash upfront, with an additional R100 million in earn-outs over three years, tied to performance and Capitec’s share price. For Capitec, the acquisition of Walletdoc’s full-stack payment gateway, which includes online and in-app acquiring, instant EFT, payment links, and payouts, will integrate seamlessly into its business-banking operations.
Leonard Shenker, the quietly spoken co-founder and CEO of Walletdoc, sees the acquisition as the culmination of his decade-long journey in South Africa’s fintech landscape. Shenker co-founded Walletdoc in 2015 with Dan Wagner, initially launching the app as a consumer bill-payment platform. Their vision was to simplify the process of paying traffic fines and utility bills, making them as easy as booking a taxi. Early partnerships with EasyPay and Absa validated the idea and allowed Walletdoc to stay independent while gaining access to a large number of billers.
Before founding Walletdoc, Shenker spent nearly a decade as an executive director at DrawCard, a payments company. His unique background in electrical engineering, coupled with professional qualifications in accounting and finance from the University of the Witwatersrand, laid the foundation for Walletdoc’s technical expertise and commercial approach.
Walletdoc, officially launched in 2016, has processed billions of rand in transactions, expanding from its original focus on bill payments to include merchant services, remote card collections, and invoice-as-POS tools for SMEs. As Walletdoc grew, Shenker became a regular voice in the fintech space, speaking on payment security and remote commerce at conferences alongside industry giants like Visa and Absa.
At the time of the acquisition, Walletdoc was a 10-year-old company, and while Shenker’s exact age is not disclosed, it’s evident that he’s part of a small group of South African fintech founders who have successfully navigated the journey from self-funded startups to strategic exits.
If regulators approve the deal, Capitec plans to incorporate Walletdoc’s technology into its broader business offerings, rather than keeping it as a standalone brand. This will mark a significant shift for Shenker, transitioning from a founder-CEO to a corporate leader within Capitec
