Sirlibz
Stripe, an online payment processor for internet businesses is acquiring Paystack, a Nigerian business that offers the same services as Stripe by providing a quick way enterprises or companies can integrate payment services into their online and offline transaction via an API. Paystack is referred as “The Stripe of Africa” since it was a start-up from Lagos, a city in Nigeria and the business focused more on those in Africa.
Stripe had announced that they plan on expanding their business into other geographical areas since they had raised $600 million in funding. Paystack currently processes over 60,000 customers transactions which includes FinTech’s, Small businesses, Educational institutions, Online betting companies and larger corporates.
The deal is said to have cost Stripe a whopping sum of over $200m although terms of the deal nor price was not made public.
“There is enormous opportunity,” said Patrick Collison, Stripe’s co-founder and CEO, in an interview with TechCrunch. “In absolute numbers, Africa may be smaller right now than other regions, but online commerce will grow 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.”
Paystack was the first start-up from Nigeria to go through a Y Combinator in 2016, back in 2018, Stripe helped Paystack raise $8million funding from investors which include Visa and Tencent.
“Paystack was not for sale when Stripe approached us,” said Akinlade, who co-founded the company with Ezra Olubi (who is the CTO). “For us, it’s about the mission. I’m driven by the mission to accelerate payments on the continent, and I am convinced that Stripe will help us get there faster. It is a very natural move.”
Paystacks acquisition is the highest the company has ever made since it started investing in start-ups. Over the years they have invested in other regions when they had to move, so they purchase start-ups to penetrate those areas, some of their other acquisition of Fast, a universal check -out -service and pay Mongo, a Philippines -based payments platform.
