The Nigerian fintech industry on October 15 recorded the biggest acquisition in the African digital economy. Stripe Inc, an American payment company acquired the Nigerian fintech company Paystack. Stripe Inc. is also a fintech company which primarily offers the same financial service payment processing. The fulfilment of the deal is based on investments, aiming at expanding the African digital market at the fastest pace.
According to the PitchBook net worth statistics, the recent successful asset Stripe gained by acquiring the Nigerian FinTech company, Paystack, is worth $200 million-plus, excluding the previous investments that Stripe had with Paystack. Analysts foresee that the expected revenue to be earned by Paystack is enough to take Nigeria and the African digital economy to the next level.
“The African internet economy is expanding quickly, with online commerce in the region growing 21% year-over-year, 75% faster than the global average. In other to help increase Africa’s online GDP, Stripe has agreed to acquire Paystack.” A spokesperson from Stripe Inc. said on Thursday.
The Silicon Valley based Stripe Inc is a prominent company in the American FinTech industry, with active businesses across the major regions in the world, and has acquired the sum of valued asset worth roughly $36 billion.
However, prior to the latest achievement the Nigerian payment processor company has accomplished, Paystack had been one of the major sources of revenue increase to the African digital GDP to have also recorded 60,000 successful businesses on board, processing millions of dollars monthly in a modern secured payment gateway with high profiled companies including MTN, UPS, FedEx etc. It is no wonder the Nigerian payment company achieved the biggest deal in the African FinTech industry featuring the Silicon Valley finest.
Paystack was founded in 2016 by two Nigerians graduates, Ezra Olubi and Shola Akinlade, with computer science as their major course of study. Before the early investments Stripe had with the Nigerian Fintech, they had been receiving funds from Silicon Valley’s Y-combinator programme.
Over the years, Paystack has managed to breed its potential for business growth and future expansion across Africa. For an acquisition to be successful, both companies have to possess the ability of business growth as a common factor. The agreement between Paystack Payment Ltd and Stripe Inc is quite understandable, and the American firm acquired above 50% shares of Paystack’s stock, which leaves Stripe as the owner of Paystack with the right to make decisions without consulting the shareholders under Paystack. The agreement also authorized Paystack to retain its name with an independent business operation.
Stripe intends to enrich the Nigerian digital economy using Paystack as a point of contact to the entire Africans e-commerce market. Analyst says Stripe global reputation will influence Paystack treasury network and payments. Relating to the comment stated by Silicon Valley’s finest, its investment in the Nigerian FinTech industry is a certified platform for active global payment processing which bridge across 42 countries.
