Stripe, an online payments platform company has recently announced its acquisition of Nigeria-based online and offline payment service, Paystack for a whopping $200Mn (N9.2Bn), making it one of the largest technology Nigeria-based startup acquisitions in the history of our nation. Paystack is a payment platform that has a customer base of about 60,000, the company currently processes over half of all online transactions in Nigeria. Paystack is expected to still continue its operations independently despite its acquisition by Stripe.
CEO and co-founder of Paystack, Shola Akinlade expressed his excitement about the partnership with Stripe, saying it will accelerate Paystack’s global outreach. Stripe’s Business Lead for Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), Matt Henderson said, "In just 5 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. We can’t wait to see what they will build next and how their growth can turbocharge the African tech ecosystem."
Industry analysts claim that online commerce in Africa is growing by 21% year by year, which means it is growing 75% faster than the global average rate.
Stripe’s CEO and co-founder, Patrick Collison said," Africa may be smaller than other regions right now, but online commerce is projected to grow by about 30% every year. And even with wider global declines, online shoppers are growing twice as fast."
