Interswitch, an integrated digital payments and commerce provider focused on Africa on Wednesday launched its brand new corporate identity in Kenya.

This marks a new phase in Interswitch’s expansion across Africa and follows the completion of merger with leading East African e-payments provider Paynet Group.

Effectively, Paynet Group – East Africa’s multi-institutional payments provider and owner of PesaPoint brand now becomes Interswitch East Africa.

Paynet started in Kenya in 2003 and is the first and only business in Kenya to achieve PCI-DSS certification, the global card industry security standard. It is best known for a number of innovations including building the extensive PesaPoint network of ATMs and agents in Kenya, linking ATMs with M-Pesa and driving the adoption of EMV Chip cards.

Following the announcement and official opening of new offices for the business, Kenya becomes the second country where Interswitch has rebranded its operations, after it unveiled a new logo in Nigeria last month seeking to establish uniform brand values and identity across Africa.

Interswitch operations in Uganda and Gambia will also rebrand before the end of the year.

Speaking during the launch held at Interswitch’s new Nairobi offices at Orbit Place, Westlands – Nairobi, Interswitch Group Managing Director Mitchell Elegbe said the new brand is a statement of Interswitch’s leading position in the market and reflects its ambition to continue to grow its world class service across the African continent.

“Interswitch’s new logo and brand is a confident statement of our leading position in the market and sets us apart from the competition. The bold design clearly reflects the best-in-class service we provide our customers, our ambitious pan-African expansion plans and our relentless pursuit of new and innovative e-payment solutions for the African market,” Elegbe said.
He added,

“Our future at Interswitch is increasingly bright as we continue to push the frontiers of not just digital payments but commerce as a whole.”

The new identity celebrates Interswitch’s continuous drive to innovate e-payment solutions tailored to the African market with the aim of delivering ‘intuitive exchange’, where transactions happen at the speed of thought.

Bernard Matthewman, CEO – Interswitch East Africa commenting on the launch said the new bold yet simple design encapsulates the personality, drive and values of integrity and trust that are central to the Interswitch brand.

“For our customers, partners and stakeholders, re-branding of our business to Interswitch comes at a time when we are investing heavily in people, training and technology to ensure we position the business to deliver a greater range of services and enhanced service levels. We now have an unrivalled, truly borderless pan-African payment infrastructure under Interswitch which we will leverage to enable faster transactions, innovation and even greater value for our partners,” he said.

Since launching in 2002, Interswitch has grown rapidly and consistently, resulting in a current transaction volume of over 350 million transactions per month and more than US$32 billion a year across its platforms.

Interswitch runs one of Africa’s leading payment card brands ‘Verve’ and according to Deloitte is the fastest growing tech company in Africa with revenue growth of 1,226 percent in the last five years.