Canva Partners With EBANX and Capitec Pay to Launch Cardless Subscriptions in South Africa

Canva has launched recurring account-to-account payments in South Africa through Capitec Pay, marking the first time a global subscription service has utilised this local infrastructure. Facilitated by EBANX, the integration addresses a critical gap in a market where credit card penetration remains below 10%, offering a scalable alternative for international digital merchants to reach uncarded consumers.

What was announced

Canva’s integration of Capitec Pay allows South African users to maintain subscriptions without a credit card. Historically, global digital services relied on card-on-file models, which effectively excluded the 44 million South Africans who do not own credit cards. According to data from the South African Reserve Bank and the World Bank, credit card penetration in the country sits between just 8% and 10% of the adult population. This structural limitation has restricted the growth of traditional subscription models that require a card to be permanently linked to an account.

The new system leverages an account-to-account (A2A) payment method built by Capitec. Customers approve a recurring payment once within the Capitec mobile app, after which Canva can automatically collect future subscription fees without further manual intervention. This milestone was achieved through Canva’s ongoing partnership with EBANX, which helped enhance the solution and became the first global payment service provider to integrate it into cross-border payment flows.

The scale of the opportunity is significant. Capitec is the largest personal bank in South Africa, boasting 26 million clients and more than 16 million app users. Internal data suggests that one in three South African adults currently uses the Capitec mobile app. This move comes as South Africa’s digital commerce market experiences rapid expansion; it currently reaches 74% of adults and is projected to grow at a 20% annual rate through 2028. By that year, the e-commerce sector is expected to represent a USD 23 billion opportunity, based on insights from EBANX’s Beyond Borders study and data from Payments and Commerce Market Intelligence (PCMI).

"For Canva, going live as the first global merchant on this infrastructure is a removal of a structural barrier that was preventing a large portion of South Africans from accessing our platform at all."

Bianca Sibiya, Canva Africa Lead.

The companies involved

Canva is a global visual communication platform that has prioritised accessibility in emerging markets. Its partner in this initiative, EBANX, is a global technology company that specialises in payment services for emerging economies. EBANX has positioned itself as a leading enabler of recurring alternative payment methods (APMs) in cross-border digital commerce. Beyond South Africa, EBANX supports recurring APMs across 12 emerging markets, providing global merchants with a gateway to over 1 billion consumers who may lack access to traditional credit or debit cards. The company focuses on bridging the gap between global merchants and consumers in regions where traditional financial infrastructure is less prevalent.

Capitec serves as the foundational partner for this rollout. As South Africa’s largest personal bank by customer base, it has focused on digital-first banking solutions to capture the majority of the country's banked population. The bank’s philosophy centers on providing simple, affordable, and innovative services. Its proprietary payment method, Capitec Pay, was designed to simplify the transaction process for its 26 million clients, offering a payment experience they already trust. The South African Reserve Bank and the World Bank provide the macro-economic context for these developments, tracking the shift from traditional cash and card systems toward the mobile-centric financial ecosystem that now dominates the region.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has previously explored the shifting dynamics of global finance and the increasing influence of non-Western markets. This includes reports on how the Asia Pacific to Overtake US as Global Finance Center with $4.8 Trillion Economic Value by 2035, highlighting a broader trend of economic power moving toward emerging regions. Additionally, the publication has covered the growth of digital-native sectors in these areas, such as the City Traders Imperium Expands Global Funded Trading Access Across 178 Countries, which spotlights the rise of emerging market participants in the global financial system. These shifts mirror the current expansion of digital commerce and alternative payment methods in South Africa.

What this means

This announcement signals a definitive move away from the "Western-centric" payment model that has long hindered SaaS growth in Africa. By prioritising account-to-account (A2A) transfers over credit cards, Canva and EBANX are acknowledging that the future of global digital commerce depends on local payment logic rather than forcing local consumers into global card schemes. This puts immediate pressure on other major subscription-based platforms to diversify their payment stacks or risk being locked out of a $23 billion market. The success of this integration will likely serve as a litmus test for whether A2A can become the primary engine for the global subscription economy in emerging regions.