CoPay is a next-generation digital payments and community commerce platform designed to help informal merchants and everyday consumers transact, grow, and earn rewards seamlessly starting with WhatsApp and expanding into a broader payments ecosystem.

Built for emerging markets like South Africa, CoPay bridges the gap between cash-based informal trade and the formal digital economy, making payments simple, accessible, and rewarding for everyone.

Why CoPay Exists

Millions of small businesses spaza shops, street vendors, car washes, salons, food stalls, and township entrepreneurs still rely heavily on cash. This limits their growth, access to data, rewards programmes, and formal financial services.

CoPay was created to solve this by:

• Enabling easy digital payments
• Helping merchants build customer loyalty
• Creating community-driven commerce
• Giving informal businesses tools traditionally reserved for big retailers and banks

How CoPay Works

CoPay operates at the intersection of payments, rewards, and community.

1. Simple Digital Payments

Customers can pay merchants digitally using modern payment rails (such as instant payments), reducing reliance on cash while keeping transactions fast and familiar.

2. Merchant Rewards & Loyalty

Merchants can offer dynamic rewards such as discounts, cashback, or points—based on customer behaviour. No complex systems. No expensive hardware.

3. WhatsApp-Based Communities

CoPay leverages WhatsApp Communities to:

• Organise merchants by region and trade
• Share announcements, promotions, and insights
• Gather real-time feedback from customers
• Drive adoption through trusted local networks

This makes onboarding and engagement natural, especially for merchants already using WhatsApp daily.

4. Data That Empowers

By digitising transactions, CoPay helps merchants:

• Understand customer behaviour
• Track sales trends
• Build a digital footprint that can unlock future financial opportunities

Who CoPay Is For

• Informal merchants: Spaza shops, street vendors, car washes, salons, food sellers
• Customers: Everyday consumers who want fast payments and real rewards
• Communities: Local economies looking to grow through trust, collaboration, and technology

What Makes CoPay Different

• Built for informal markets, not retrofitted from formal retail
• Community-first, not just transaction-first
• Low barrier to entry—no complex apps or infrastructure
• Merchant-empowering, not platform-extractive

CoPay doesn’t just move money it builds economic participation.

The Vision

CoPay’s vision is to become the digital payments backbone for community commerce, enabling millions of small businesses to thrive, formalise on their own terms, and participate fully in the modern financial system.

CoPay is more than a payment platform. It’s a movement to digitise trust, reward loyalty, and unlock growth where it matters most—at the community level.