Stripe is acquiring Paystack, a startup out of Lagos, Nigeria, like Stripe, provides a quick way to integrate payments services into an online or offline transaction by way of an API.
More than 60000 businesses of all sizes use Paystack to collect payments with a modern, secure payment gateway businesses in Nigeria. The company is planning to expand across the continent and has already started a pilot with businesses in South Africa.
In the midst of a tough week in Nigeria, we have some positive news to share.
Paystack will be acquired by @stripe to accelerate online and offline commerce across Africa.https://t.co/7ZAA8vhdIz pic.twitter.com/kShKF5evBK
— Paystack (@paystack) October 15, 2020
Paystack was set up in 2016 by two Nigerian computer science graduates, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, who received early stage funding in Silicon Valley’s Y-Combinator programme.
Stripe is one of the most valuable private tech companies with a private-market valuation of $36 billion based on the $600 million extension of a funding round in April.
In 2018, Stripe led an $8 million Series A funding round for Paystack and has now decided to buy the Nigerian outfit to take advantage of a market that has huge potential.
“The African internet economy is expanding quickly, with online commerce in the region growing 21% year-over-year, 75% faster than the global average,” Stripe said in a statement. “In order to help increase Africa’s online GDP, Stripe has entered into an agreement to acquire Paystack.”
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.
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