South African payments company Yoco has ended a 13-year period of founder-led management with the appointment of Carsten Höltkemeyer, a German banker with more than two decades of experience in European financial services, as its chief executive.
Höltkemeyer will take office from June and has been tasked with scaling Yoco into what the company describes as an all-in-one smart commerce platform for independent businesses. He brings expertise from Solaris SE, where he served as CEO from October 2022 to the end of 2025, as well as prior roles at Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
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The hire comes nine months after co-founder Katlego Maphai stepped down as CEO. During the interim period, fellow founders Lungisa Matshoba and Bradley Wattrus served as co-CEOs while the company conducted a global search. All four founders will remain with the business: Matshoba and Wattrus return to their previous roles as chief product and technology officer and chief financial officer respectively, while Carl Wazen continues as chief business officer and Maphai will retain an advisory role focused on strategy.
The appointment signals a deliberate move towards institutional-grade leadership as Yoco enters what it has characterised as an inflection point in its development. The company, which earns revenue through the sale of card payment devices and transaction fees, serves small and medium businesses across South Africa and has steadily expanded its product suite.
Yoco raised $83 million in a Series C funding round in mid-2021, which was at the time regarded as the largest capital raise for a fintech company in South Africa. Total funding raised to date stands at $107 million.
The fintech remains privately held, and the leadership change is likely to reinvigorate questions about its long-term trajectory — whether towards a JSE listing, a regional expansion drive or a trade sale. Fintech has consistently attracted the largest share of investment in Africa’s startup ecosystem, and Yoco is one of the most recognised brands in the sector.
Höltkemeyer’s background in restructuring and scaling European financial services businesses — including through Solaris, which provides banking-as-a-service infrastructure — gives Yoco access to a network and a set of capabilities that go beyond payments processing. His appointment reflects a pattern visible elsewhere in the African startup ecosystem, where high-growth companies increasingly seek CEOs with experience managing complex financial services operations rather than those who come primarily from a product or venture-building background.