From Cash to Chat: How Loop Is Revolutionising WhatsApp Payments in Africa

Just after sunrise in a Cape Town suburb, a minibus taxi pulls up outside a family home. The driver leans out, hands over a bag heavy with cash, and drives off again. It’s a daily ritual — and a dangerous one. 

For generations, South Africa’s taxi operators have run on cash: quick, tangible and trusted, but also risky, inefficient and invisible to the formal financial system.

That image — a taxi full of commuters and cash — was the spark behind Loop Taxi (Loop) a South African mobility and payments startup that has quietly built one of the continent’s most practical fintech solutions. Instead of trying to replace cash with banking apps or QR codes, Loop met commuters and drivers where they already were on WhatsApp.

The result is deceptively simple. Using only a phone and a chat window, taxi drivers, commuters and small businesses can now send and receive instant, free payments — no bank charges, no waiting periods, and no need for expensive card machines.

But what started as a way to digitise taxi fares has become something far bigger. Loop is now powering corporate staff transport, township commerce and even informal retail payments. In the process, it injected over R50 million back into local communities and created financial records for workers who previously operated entirely outside the system.

For investors and founders, Loop offers a compelling case study in contextual innovation — technology that doesn’t disrupt behaviour but enhances it. In a market where cash is still king, Loop’s founders built a digital alternative that feels exactly like cash: instant, trusted and right at your fingertips.

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Why Digital Banking Fails Africa’s Informal Economy — And How Loop Solved It

Unlike in countries like Kenya where commuters leverage platforms such as M-Pesa to pay for rides, South African commuters rely almost entirely on cash. The taxi industry, despite moving an estimated 15 million passengers daily and generating more than R50 billion a year, remains largely informal.

Previous attempts to digitise payments in this sector have consistently failed — not because of technology, but because of human behaviour.

Key factors include: