TurnStay
Headquarters: Cape Town, South Africa
CEO: Alon Stern
Website: TurnStay
Founding date: 2021
Investment: $2.3M
Pictured (L to R): Co-founders Alon Stern and James Hedley
TurnStay is a Cape Town-based fintech that provides borderless payment infrastructure for African travel businesses, from tour operators and hotels to safari destinations. Acting as merchant of record, it lets operators accept payments from international travelers in their home currencies and settle locally, using smart routing and stablecoin rails to cut payment costs by up to 70%. In the first half of 2026 alone, TurnStay processed more than $60.8 million in travel payments for merchants across South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana and Mauritius.
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Below, we asked TurnStay co-founder and CEO Alon Stern to share strategic priorities for 2027 and what has been learned since founding.
Strategic goals for 2027
In 2027, our focus is scale. Having processed more than $60.8 million in the first half of 2026, we want TurnStay to become the default payments layer for African travel. That means closing our Series A, expanding deeper into East and Southern Africa and pursuing licenses in additional international markets so more travelers can pay in their home currency. We are also deepening integrations with property management and booking systems, so switching to TurnStay is effortless for any lodge or tour operator. Our philosophy stays the same: The less merchants pay in fees, the more money stays in Africa.
Key lessons learned since founding
The biggest lesson has been the power of focus. By building only for travel, we understand the realities our merchants face, from deposits taken months before arrival to refunds and chargebacks across currencies, in a way generalist payment providers can't. We've also learned that trust is earned one merchant at a time. Lodges and tour operators don't switch payment providers lightly, so every saving we deliver and every payout that lands on time matters. Three years ago there were two of us and an idea. Proving the model with real merchants, with strong product focus before chasing scale is what got us here.
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