US-based payment heavyweight, Stripe has acquired Nigerian payment startup Paystack for a reported fee of $200 million, reports TechCrunch.
The deal is reported to be the highest paid for a Nigerian startup and the highest Stripe has spent on acquiring a startup anywhere in the world.
Paystack has always pride itself as the Stripe for Africa making this development an anticipated one for many.
The fintech startup currently has over 60,000 customers from across Africa. The customers include small businesses, fintech companies, educational institutions, betting companies, larger corporations.
The acquisition notwithstanding, Paystack will continue to exist independently and retain its name.
In an interview with TechCrunch, Paystack CEO, Shola Akinlade said the deal will give the startup the needed resources to further build for Nigerians and expand to more markets.
He revealed that there was no plan of selling the company when Stripe approached. He said he and his partner, however, chose to sell because they were convinced that Stripe will help them get to their mission faster – which is to accelerate payments in Africa.
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About Paystack
Paystack was founded in 2015 by Ezra Olubi (CTO) and Shola Akinlade (CEO) with the aim of solving a major challenge of online payments in Nigeria.
In a short while, they were able to connect to multi-channel options with financial merchants in Nigeria, making it possible for them to receive payments from different parts of the world through debit and credit cards, bank transfers and web transactions.
With all these achievements within a year, they were able to get into Y Combinator, the US-based seed-stage accelerator where they got $120,000,000 worth of funds and access to investors from different parts of the world.
They’ve continued to sour higher ever since, receiving more funds from other investors including Comcast, Tencent, Ventures, Singularity Investments, Justin Kan, Michael Seibel, Spark.ng among others.
Paystack attained a new height in 2018 when they raised $8 million in Series A funding which was led by… Stripe.
Today, the same Stripe acquires Paystack for $200 million (about N80 billion) and the world is watching to see where that would lead the Nigerian fintech company.
Nigerians Celebrate Paystack amidst Nationwide #EndSars Protest
Amidst the ongoing nationwide #EndSars protest to end Police brutality and impunity, Nigerians spared some time to congratulate Paystack and its founders on the acquisition.
