In a move to expand into the African Market, Paystack, a Nigerian payments startup, has been acquired by US-based payments company, Stripe.
According to TechCrunch, “Terms of the deal are not being disclosed but sources close to it confirm that it’s over $200 million. That makes this the biggest startup acquisition to date to come out of Nigeria, as well as Stripe’s biggest acquisition to date anywhere.”
In an interview with TechCrunch, Stripe’s co-founder and CEO, Patrick Collison says, “There is an enormous opportunity. In absolute numbers, Africa may be smaller right now than other regions, but online commerce will grow by about 30% every year. And even with wider global declines, online shoppers are growing twice as fast. Stripe thinks on a longer time horizon than others because we are an infrastructure company. We are thinking of what the world will look like in 2040-2050.”
As a technology company solving payments problems for ambitious businesses in Africa, Paystack is said to have been within the spectrum of Stripe’s attention for a while. Founded by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi in 2015, the Nigerian startup builds technology to help Africa’s best businesses grow – from new startups to market leaders launching new business models.
In 2016, Paystack was the first Nigerian startup to go through Y Combinator and by 2018, Stripe led an $8 million funding round for the Nigerian startup in a Series A funding. Paystack currently has over 60,000 customers using its platform in Nigeria and Ghana.
Stripe, on the other hand, helps companies to build websites and apps that accept payments and send payouts globally. The US-based company also supports companies to beat fraud, send invoices, issue virtual and physical cards, get financing, manage business spend, and much more.
Apart from its investment in Paystack in 2018, Stripe has invested in startups building technology and businesses such as Fast, a universal checkout service, and PayMongo, a Philippines-based payment platform.