Stripe, a United States fintech company, is acquiring Paystack, a Lagos-based startup, in a deal said to be worth over $200m.
Like Stripe, Paystack provides a quick way to integrate payments services into an online or offline transaction by way of an API.
The tech firm currently has around 60,000 customers, including small businesses, larger corporates, fintechs, educational institutions and online betting companies.
Terms of the deal are not being disclosed, but Tech Crunch reports that it is worth “over $200 million”.
The new deal is the biggest startup acquisition to date to come out of Nigeria, and Stripe’s biggest acquisition anywhere around the globe.
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In his reaction, Shola Akinlade, chief executive officer (CEO) of Paystack, said the company will be joining Stripe to accelerate online and offline commerce across Africa.
“I am thankful to share that Paystack is joining the Stripe family. We’ll be acquired by Stripe to accelerate online commerce across Africa, pending standard closing conditions including regulatory approvals,” he said.
“Both companies are really, really aligned. I think we are trying to do the same thing. Help people start and scale internet businesses, increase the gross domestic product(GDP) of the internet. And I think about how over the next few years, there are going to be bigger exits because now it can be done.”
Akinlade, who co-founded the company with Ezra Olubi said Paystack was basically the “Stripe of Africa.”
Patrick Collison, Stripe’s co-founder and chief executive officer, said there is an enormous opportunity on the African continent.
He explained that although Africa is smaller than other regions, online commerce will grow about 30 percent every year.
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“And even with wider global declines, online shoppers are growing twice as fast. Stripe thinks on a longer time horizon than others because we are an infrastructure company. We are thinking of what the world will look like in 2040-2050,” he said.
Stripe has developed an extensive platform fraud detection and protection tools, even though there are occasional instances when the checks fail. Last month, the tech company was fined heavily in a case in Massachusetts after failing to protect users in a $15 million cryptocurrency scam.
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