South Africa’s hidden fintech giant adding 4,000 customers every day

Weaver Fintech continues to show strong growth, with the company adding over 120,000 new clients to its financial services offering on a monthly basis. 

Crucially, this growth appears to be profitable, with trading profit surging 41% to R1.1 billion and headline earnings jumping 40% to R5.52 per share. 

This was revealed by the company in its annual results for the financial year ended 31 December 2025, the first full year under its new name. 

Weaver Fintech was established in 2021 by HomeChoice International to house its financial services offering and present it as a standalone business outside of the retailer’s physical network. 

This business has grown in leaps and bounds since then, with its 2021 purchase of buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) company PayJustNow setting it up for future growth. 

The rise in BNPL use in South Africa following the Covid-19 pandemic saw PayJustNow’s customer base and revenue surge, with the company adding over 100,000 customers a month since launch. 

It is now the largest business of its kind in South Africa, which has pushed HomeChoice to overhaul its structure, making Weaver Fintech the primary business unit and the company’s “face” to investors. 

This change and Weaver’s sustained growth have propelled the company to a market capitalisation of over R7 billion, more than doubling in the past year. 

Weaver also notably owns FinChoice, which was created by HomeChoice in 2007 to house its short-term lending business. 

In its entirety, Weaver is now adding over 120,000 customers a month, or around 4,000, every day. 

The business’s secret sauce lies in its ability to keep its share of non-paying customers exceptionally low by forcing consumers to pay one-third of the price at checkout and by using a unique behavioural scorecard to process approvals. 

The one-third payment at checkout adds a natural barrier to entry to its service, filtering out non-paying customers.

PayJustNow also does not charge any fees or interest on payments, only charging penalties when payments are over 24 hours late. 

As a result, most of PayJustNow’s income is generated by fees paid by merchants who use its service to facilitate transactions and monthly payments. 

Recently, the company has onboarded major retailers, including Shoprite and Takealot, growing its marketplace to 3,450 merchants and 12,300 points of presence. 

Weaver’s finances and future

Weaver continues to produce strong financial results, with it being one of the fastest-growing companies on the JSE. 

To maintain this growth into the coming years, the company is steadily launching new products within the fintech space. 

One of the most important products added to Weaver’s offering is insurance, which is highly lucrative in the form of annuity-type income. 

Gross written premiums from Weaver’s insurance business grew by 21% in the 2025 financial year, driven by the launch of its new funeral and accident products. 

Weaver expects growth of these products to accelerate into the future, with it investing heavily in digital acquisition channels, which now account for 49% of sales. 

The launch of new products outside of BNPL and short-term lending enables Weaver to cross-sell its products through its extensive distribution network and client base. 

Weaver noted that product penetration has deepened within the ecosystem, with multi-product customers increasing 28% year-on-year. Clients, on average, have 2.6 active products each. 

To enhance this cross-selling proposition, Weaver plans to launch a PayJustNow debit card in partnership with a bank to ensure clients can access all of the group’s payment products in one place. 

Despite its primary focus being on growing its fintech business, Weaver continues to invest in HomeChoice as a retailer. 

Revenue from this division grew by 6% to R2 billion, with trading profit up 32% as the retailer division tightened credit to improve its return on assets. 

The business has been restructured to drive double-digit operating margins, with the future focus on cash generation through reduced credit terms. 

As the division transitions to a more cash-generative and asset-efficient model, a R244 million non-cash, one-off impairment cost was recognised at year-end to align the value of Retail assets with the new strategy.

Showrooms are the key growth driver in Retail, delivering high customer engagement and a full-service offering. The expansion of the showroom network from 37 in 2024 to 60 locations in 2025 has supported a 24% increase in showroom sales.