Paystack of Nigeria Bought by Stripe of U.S. for $200 Million

By Abdul Yahaya

Nigerian digital payments company Paystack is being acquired by U S. technology company Stripe Inc for $200 million in a bid to explore electronic-payments opportunities across Africa.

“Paystack is joining the Stripe family,”  Shola Akinlade, co-founder and chief executive officer, said in a blog post on Thursday. The deal is awaiting “pending standard closing conditions including regulatory approvals,” he said.

Founded in 2015 by Akinlade and fellow software developer Ezra Olubi, Paystack went on to raise $1.3 million from local and international investors investors. An additional $8 million came in 2018 from investors including Stripe, Visa, Tencent and start up incubator Y Combinator.

Its business-to-business network includes payment services for more than 60,000 companies including FedEx, UPS, MTN, the Lagos Internal Revenue Service and AXA Mansard.

Stripe, on its part, has provided digital- payments processing systems for top U.S. companies such as Google, Amazon, Shopify and Zoom.

“Paystack merchants and partners can look forward to more payment channels, more tools, accelerated geographic expansion, and deeper integrations with global platforms,” Akinlade said.