Nexo didn't start in a boardroom. It started behind a till — running real stores, paying real fees, and getting tired of software that worked for everyone except the operator. So we built our own.
Every month the same numbers landed: hundreds of thousands of rands going out the door in card fees and software licences — for a stack of tools that didn't talk to each other, couldn't be fully trusted, and left us reconciling by hand long after the doors had closed.
One day we actually did the maths. The fees alone could fund building something better — a single platform that sells, takes payment, and runs the back office, with the savings staying inside the business instead of leaking out of it. So that's what we set out to build.
We started where the pain was sharpest: the card machine itself. We put the point of sale on the device that takes payment, connected it straight to the bank, and made every number flow from one source of truth. Then we gave it a brain — Nexa, an AI operations manager that watches every store and drafts the work — and eyes — Nexo Vision, turning the cameras already on the wall into live floor intelligence.
Today Nexo runs in retail, hospitality and beyond — built in South Africa, for the way South Africa actually trades. We're still the operators we started as. We just finally have the software to match.
We're the operators we started as — now with a team of builders, support people and floor-tested product thinkers behind the platform, all based in Johannesburg.
Whether you want Nexo in your stores or you want to help build it — we'd love to talk.