Crossfin Expands Globally with Strategic Investment in UAE Fintech Unitey

The South African fintech investment team at Crossfin  has taken its first steps to a new global focus with an investment in UAE-based Unitey Digital Holdings  through its newly established Crossfin Singapore investment vehicle.

Our goal since the founding of Crossfin is to put money behind strategic payment rails in Africa and beyond and then invest in fintechs that provide innovations that can be leveraged across the rails. With the launch of Crossfin Singapore, we are taking our proven fintech investment philosophy to new markets. We hope our investment in Unitey is the first in a growing portfolio of likeminded assets in the Middle East, Africa and into Southeast Asia.

– Anton Gaylard, co-founder and CXO, Crossfin

Crossfin Singapore has attracted two initial anchor investors – Standard Bank and Turing Capital Fund, a sub-fund of Chronos Capital Fund VCC.

Michael Jordaan of Chronos Capital Advisors SA says central banks are exploring new payment solutions amid growing economic disruption and uncertainty:

Unitey’s role in enabling central banks with vital solutions that drive payments innovation and sovereignty has exciting applications for Crossfin and the broader fintech ecosystem. We look forward to working with the Crossfin team as it scales its proven investment philosophy to new markets.

– Michael Jordaan of Chronos Capital Advisors SA

Unitey, founded in 2021 by Muzaffar Khokhar, is an emerging markets technology holding company that includes Mercury, a multifaceted payments services provider of infrastructure management services, and operates a licensed payment services brand, Shukria, in the UAE.

I have worked closely with Dean and Anton at Crossfin and with the South African payments ecosystem in general over the last decade and have always considered it world class in all aspects. We are very happy for Crossfin, backed by Chronos Capital Advisors SA (PTY) Ltd. and Standard Bank, to invest in Unitey to accelerate the immensely successful journey that I started along with my co-founders Muzaffer Hamid and Gururaj Balakrishna in 2021.

– Muzaffar Khokhar, Founder and CEO, Unitey Digital

We have known Muzaffar for years, building a strong relationship and solid mutual understanding. As a non-executive director of one of the companies in our Crossfin Armada over the past three years, we have also had the opportunity to benefit from his insight and experience, and we look forward to building on this in the years to come. Muzaffar has assembled a word class team of payments domain experts under Unitey and this investment is extremely complementary to other businesses across the Crossfin portfolio, making this an exciting addition.

– Anton Gaylard, co-founder and CXO, Crossfin