Paynet History

Paynet was born out of a company called CF Tulley Associates, which had a reputation for offering widespread technology solutions in the Zimbabwean and Southern African markets throughout the eighties and nineties and was considered a market leader in many fields. In 1999 the Africa-wide technology conglomerate African Lakes Corporation bought CF Tulley and Tradanet, an e-commerce company started in 1997 in which CF Tulley had majority share, and merged these organizations into its infrastructure.

Tradanet initially offered supply chain solutions for the retail sector through a product purchased from GE Information Services. Whilst highly successful, the opportunity for growth in the retail sector was somewhat limited and the company progressed into developing an electronic payments solution to banks to move payment transactions more efficiently from corporate end users into the banking system. This solution was branded Paynet (the initial product). Paynet was well received in the Zimbabwean marketplace and it was the cornerstone to African Lakes’ strategy to promote a working e-business solution across Africa.

Kenya was chosen as the first country to expand this e-business division to as it had a definite requirement for the solution as well as being the headquarters for the African Lakes Corporation on the continent. A Regional office was set up in 2000 here in Kenya with a view to quickly moving the brand and product across the rest of the continent and key staff was sent to Nairobi to set up the organization. Initial success in Kenya with Paynet meant that some of the focus in moving to other countries was postponed but it was finally the cash restrictions within African Lakes that slowed expansion and led to the Management Buy Out and the company that exists today.

In late 2002 African Lakes decided to consolidate the Group and sell off this e-business division as they could no longer support a developing operation, and the management decided to look for a strategic investor and initiate a management buy out. The potential and the vision of the business sold it and a local investor was chosen for strategic reasons in December 2002 and the businesses in Kenya and Zimbabwe were purchased from African Lakes in January 2003.

African Lakes Technologies was immediately renamed Paynet (Kenya and Zimbabwe) in order to move away from the old Group image and to focus more attention on the product that sits at the core of its offering. Since January 2003 the new owners have adopted a growth-orientated strategy to achieve critical mass quickly in order to develop the organization into a more mature business that can be used as a platform for real take-off. This in turn has led to new revenue channels and a wider focus on delivering value add services into the banking sector than the one initial electronic Corporate Payments product.