The South African fintech Leading company, Yoco has ended its 13 years of founding-led management, by appointing German banking executive Carsten Höltkemeyer as its new Chief Executive Officer, to be effective from 1 June 2026. The shift signals a decisive strategic pivot as the Cape Town payments company moves from scrappy startup to a well sophisticated financial infrastructure platform.
Höltkemeyer brings over two decades of European financial services experience to the role. Most recently, he served as CEO of Berlin-based embedded finance group Solaris SE from October 2022 to the end of 2025, steering the company through a complex regulatory and operational turnaround. Before that, he spent a decade as market CEO of Barclaycard Germany and held senior roles at the Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays. His appointment follows a global search that considered candidates across Africa, the UK, Europe, and the United States.
This leadership transition was set on a motion in September 2025, when the founding CEO Katlego Maphai stepped back after a decade at the helm. Maphai acknowledged at the time that the skills required to launch a company are not always those needed to scale it. Co-founders Lungisa Matshoba and Bradley Wattrus stepped in as interim co-CEOs during the nine-month transition. Once Höltkemeyer is fully onboarded, Matshoba will return to his role as Chief Product and Technology Officer, Wattrus will take up the CFO position, and co-founder Carl Wazen will continue as Chief Business Officer.While Maphai will remain involved in an advisory capacity on strategy.
Yoco was founded in 2013 with a clear mission: give small businesses the tools they deserve. The company started with card machines and grew into a payments platform serving over 200,000 small businesses across South Africa, processing more than $1 billion in card transactions annually. To date, it has raised $107 million in total funding, including an $83 million Series C round in 2021 the largest fintech capital raise in South African history at the time.
Currently, Yoco’s sights are set considerably higher. The company has outlined a vision to become an all-in-one smart commerce platform, combining payments, point-of-sale software, business loans, AI-driven tools, and financial management features into a single integrated solution for independent merchants. “Our goal is to give merchants an unfair advantage by leveraging advancements in AI, software, and financial technology,” Yoco stated in its announcement.
SEE ALSO: Kenyan financier,Watu Records 92.7% profits Surge.
Höltkemeyer’s background scaling product-led financial services businesses through periods of rapid growth and structural complexity is precisely the profile Yoco believes it needs at this inflection point. “He brings deep experience scaling product-led financial services businesses through exactly the kind of inflection point we are entering. The fit was unmistakable,” the company said.
Holding the top job to an external executive let alone one based in Europe is a bold move for a brand built on proximity to South African entrepreneurs. Höltkemeyer himself acknowledged the significance, saying he was drawn to Yoco by “the scale of the opportunity and the clarity of its purpose.” He plans to commute to South Africa from June before relocating fully in September 2026.
The appointment reflects a broader trend playing out across Africa’s maturing startup ecosystem. High-growth companies are increasingly turning to experienced operators from global financial services to replace founder-CEOs, prioritising institutional discipline and scaling expertise over the visionary energy of their founding years. Similar transitions have recently occurred at Ghana’s mPharma and Egypt’s Elmenus.
For Yoco, the stakes are high but the logic is clear. With digital payments penetration across Africa still below 15%, the opportunity is generational. Whether a European operator can earn the trust of South Africa’s independent business community and deliver on the promise of an AI-powered commerce platform ,will define the next chapter of one of the continent’s most watched fintech stories.
