Stripe has acquired Nigeria’s Paystack for over $200 million to accelerate online and offline commerce across Africa in a deal expected to help Paystack merchants and partners access more payment channels, more tools, accelerated geographic expansion, and deeper integrations with global platforms.
Paystack will continue to execute against an ambitious roadmap with the support of Stripe’s resources and deep expertise.
This is not the first time Stripe and Paystack are working together. In 2018, Stripe led Paystack’s Series A financing round and has provided ongoing guidance as the company rapidly scaled.
“In just five years, Paystack has done what many companies could not achieve in decades. Their tech-first approach, values, and ambition greatly align with our own. This acquisition will give Paystack resources to develop new products, support more businesses and consolidate the hyper-fragmented African payments market,” said Matt Henderson, Stripe’s business lead in EMEA. “We can’t wait to see what they will build next and how their growth can turbocharge the African tech ecosystem.”
With over 60,000 businesses of all sizes using Paystack for Collections, Disbursements, Identity Verification, Reporting, and Commerce tools to grow their business across the continent, including FedEx, UPS, MTN, the Lagos Internal Revenue Service, and AXA Mansard, joining forces with Stripe will supercharge Paystack’s ability to serve its community of makers and help more businesses across the continent especially merchants who already use its technology to process hundreds of millions of dollars each month.
PCI DSS Level 1 Certified, Paystack will continue to operate independently, growing their operations in Africa and adding more international payment methods. Over time, Paystack’s capabilities will be embedded in Stripe’s Global Payments and Treasury Network (GPTN), a programmable platform for global money movement that currently spans 42 countries.
“Paystack is a growth engine for modern businesses in Africa, and we couldn’t be more excited to join forces with Stripe, whose mission and values are so aligned with ours, to nurture transformative businesses on the continent,” said Shola Akinlade, CEO and cofounder of Paystack. “We believe deeply that with the right tools, African creators, developers, and entrepreneurs can do incredible things. Leveraging Stripe’s resources and deep expertise, we’re excited to accelerate our geographic expansion and introduce more payment channels, more value-added services, and deeper integrations with global platforms.”
The acquisition is subject to standard closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.
Stripe serves firms such as Amazon, Google, Shopify, and Zoom to power their payments and scale their online businesses. Each year, more than 80% of American adults complete a purchase using Stripe.
This acquisition is the culmination of a close partnership between Stripe and Paystack over the last several years. Both companies are alums of the Y Combinator accelerator program, and Stripe led our Series A round of funding in 2018.
Paystack workforce is 114 from 12 nationalities, currently working remotely across 9 countries. According to Akinlade, “What happens next is that we go right back to work, because there is so much that we can fix and improve in Africa’s financial infrastructure.”
“There is a lot more we want to share about Paystack’s journey to this point, but this isn’t the time for it. We don’t want to draw attention away from the very serious conversations happening at all levels about police violence in Nigeria, especially against young makers. As a maker myself, and member of the tech community (a frequent target of the attacks) this matters deeply to me and to everyone at Paystack,” he concluded.
