US payment firm eyes Africa’s e-commerce in $200m acquisition of Nigeria’s Paystack

US- based global payment company Stripe on Thursday acquired Nigerian payment company Paystack in a deal reportedly at about $200 million.

The deal seals about two years of co-existing as partners by the two companies. Stripe had led Paystack’s Series A financing round and provided guidance as the company scaled to new markets.

According to Stripe’s business lead in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Matt Henderson, the acquisition would allow Paystack develop new products, support more businesses, and consolidate the hyper-fragmented African payments market.

“We can’t wait to see what they will build next and how their growth can turbocharge the African tech ecosystem,” Henderson said in a statement Businessday received.

Founded in 2015 and launched in January 2016 by Shola Akindele (CEO) and Ezra Olubi (CTO), Paystack has grown to become a major player in the digital payment segment of the financial services. It currently services more than 60,000 businesses in Nigeria and Ghana, which use its platform to securely collect online and offline payments, launch new business models, and deepen customer relationships.

Interestingly, Paystack processes more than half of all online transactions in Nigeria and has ambitions to expand across the African continent. It recently kicked off a pilot with businesses in South Africa.

“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,” Shola Akinlade, said. “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.”

Following the acquisition, Paystack will continue to operate independently, growing its operations in Africa and adding more international payment methods. The company will gradually integrate its capabilities in Stripe’s Global Payments and Treasury Network (GPTN), a programmable platform for global money movement that currently spans 42 countries.

Paystack, which was the first company from Nigeria to join Y Combinator, employs 114 people representing 12 nationalities and working remotely across nine countries.