South African fintech Yoco is banking on artificial intelligence (AI) to be the next major growth lever for small businesses. To advance that vision, the commerce platform has acquired Dyner.ai, an AI-native operating system built to help Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), particularly restaurants, streamline operations.
In an interview with TechCabal on Thursday, Carl Wazen, Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer at Yoco, hailed the acquisition as a major strategic evolution for the company, which has built its reputation helping small businesses accept digital payments.
“This forms part of our ongoing plans of evolving into a broader commerce platform combining payments, software, financial services and AI-powered operational tools for more than 200 000 merchants across South Africa,” he said.
The acquisition represents a maturing local tech ecosystem, with two South African startups joining forces to build enterprise-grade AI-powered tools for SMEs. Importantly, the AI empowerment deal marks a turning point for township entrepreneurs who operate with tight margins and limited administrative capacity. Wazen believes that it unlocks access to enterprise-grade technology previously reserved for large corporates.
