On Monday, 6 June, 2020, Capital Appreciation (Capprec), a financial technology (“FinTech”) enterprise announced its Financial Results and Cash Dividend Declaration for the year ended 31 March 2020. The company increased revenue by 15.4% to R701.2 million despite the challenging economic environment. COVID-19, an unprecedented economic disruptor, has catapulted the adoption of digital payment solutions, and contactless payments as a basic feature of payments. This is likely to continue after the pandemic.
Synthesis comprises the Software and Services section of Capprec driving innovation in the digital, cloud and emerging payments space. The company has once again followed its established trend of substantial and increasing growth year-on-year with revenue increasing by 41.5% to R195 million. EBITDA increased by 24.1% to R53.8 million and profit after tax increased by 12.8% to R36.9 million (2019: R32.7 million). The significant growth in revenue and the proportionately greater increase in operating costs correlate to the increasing demand for cloud services and the ongoing investment to address that demand and in anticipation of even greater future demand with the launch of AWS Africa cloud region in April 2020.
Synthesis is a highly specialised software and systems developer, offering consulting, integration services and technology-based product solutions, to banking, financial services, retail and healthcare sectors in South Africa and other emerging markets. Synthesis is uniquely positioned in Africa, having become the first company on the continent to attain Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) Advanced Consulting Partner Accreditation, with specialist competencies as a SaaS Partner and in Financial Services, DevOps (Development Operations) and Well Architected Frameworks.
Synthesis concluded several new partnerships, including VMware, Confluent, Hashicorp and Cloudflare. Synthesis acts as either seller or professional service providers on those technologies, which complement its Cloud and Digital services and are helping to deliver more comprehensive offerings related to real-time data streaming, cloud security, cloud infrastructure, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning (AI/ML) and personalisation. Synthesis has launched a data analysis and data engineering practice based on the use of Machine Learning and AI principles that is complementary to its Digital and Cloud areas. The focus on these new technology and customer verticals has shown favourable results.
“I am pleased with our focus and consistent positive performance. I am proud of the team and our advancements in technology, particularly in the emerging payments space where we announced the launch of our Halo product that accepts contactless payments on any NFC-enabled Android device and through our creation of the GovChat technology. Technology is best used when it propels advancements that benefit society and drives business success. Our year-on-year growth is an indication of this commitment to our customers, partners and society as a whole”, concludes Michael Shapiro, Synthesis Managing Director.
