Stripe is stepping up its expansion into Africa through the acquisition of Lagos-based payments firm Paystack in a deal reportedly worth more than $200 million.
Like Stripe, Paystack provides APIs that let merchants, with just a few lines of code, build online payment features.
More than 60,000 businesses in Nigeria and Ghana use Paystack to collect online and offline payments. The team has developed APIs enabling developers to create online custom checkout experiences, build automated recurring billing systems, instantly send bulk transfers to any bank account in Nigeria, and verify the identity of customers.
Already processing more than half of all online transactions in Nigeria, the company is planning to expand across the continent and has already started a pilot with businesses in South Africa.
Stripe led an $8 million Series A funding round for Paystack in 2018 and has now decided to buy the Nigerian outfit to take advantage of a market that has huge potential, with online commerce on the continent growing at 21% year-over-year.
Paystack will continue to operate independently. Over time, its capabilities will be embedded in Stripe’s programmable platform for global money movement that currently spans 42 countries.
Matt Henderson, business lead, Emea, Stripe, says: "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."
Shola Akinlade, CEO, Paystack, adds: "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."
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