SA HR startup Radar gets acquired by SnapScan as founders come full circle

South African HR and payroll startup Radar has been acquired by mobile payments provider SnapScan as founders Kobus Ehlers and Gerrit Greeff exit their second startup to their first one.

Ehlers and Greeff spent close to a decade building various payments products for and with banks, culminating in SnapScan, which became South Africa’s biggest mobile payments product prior to its acquisition by Standard Bank at the end of 2016. 

The pair started working on Radar – an integrated service that takes care of everything a business owner needs to grow and manage their team – alongside Richard Oakley in 2019, and signed up their first customers in 2020. Radar has now been acquired by Firepay, the company behind SnapScan and a wholly owned subsidiary of Standard Bank, in a deal both parties said had the potential to unlock a variety of value-added offerings for SnapScan customers. The deal is pending regulatory approval.

“Firepay has been one of the original investors in Radar due to the close strategic fit between their offering and what we built at Radar. Both companies try to solve different problems facing the same SME customers. As Radar started looking for a way to scale our distribution and take the product to the next level, it became evident that working closely with SnapScan would be a great way to achieve that,” Ehlers told Disrupt Africa.

“There are some very exciting possibilities when you combine our product with the reach and experience of the SnapScan team. We look forward to seeing the product grow and improve the lives of small business employers in South Africa.” 

Marin Cundall, Firepay’s CEO, said she was excited about Radar joining the team and the opportunities it enables for the business and its future offering.

“Our focus is on providing the best experience for businesses, and we believe this acquisition will help us achieve that goal,” she said.

The acquisition will see the Radar founders exit the business, while the rest of the team will join Firepay. There will be no immediate changes for existing Radar customers or the products on offer.