Stripe, a US based payment giant, will be acquiring the Nigerian Fintech start-up, Paystack.
The terms of the acquisition are not yet made public, however, sources close to the acquisition says it could be worth over $200 million.
This will makes Paystack the biggest startup acquisition to come out of Nigeria, as well as Stripe’s biggest acquisition to date, anywhere.
Paystack co-founder and CEO, Shola Akinlade, posted on the startup’s official blog that the process for acquisition is pending regulatory approval.
“I’m 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.“
According to the CEO of Paystack, the acquisition will not disrupt the mode of operation at Paystack, and the company will still be operating independently.
“Paystack will continue to operate independently, and there will be no disruption of service as a result of this acquisition. If you’re using Paystack today, there’s no need to change anything about your technical integrations.”
Stripe inc. is an American technology company that builds economic infrastructure for the internet, the company is also a fintech giant in the United States.
Bloomberg reports that earlier this year, Stripe raised $600 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst and Sequoia Capital.
The fund is part of moves by Stripe to expand into other parts of the world, and become a force in global fintech.
Lately, fintech giants like Mastercard, Visa and PayPal are expanding into new markets in their bid to be global players. These expansions are happening through mergers and acquisitions.
Recently, Visa acquired 20% of Interswitch for $200 millon, and WorldRemit acquired SendWave for about $500 million.
According to a report by Business Insider, the total value of mergers and acquisitions in the fintech space was $116.6 billion in the first half of 2019 alone, up from $31.8 billion in 2018.
The acquisition of Paystack is part of Stripe’s international expansion plans, and this piggybacks on the fund raised by Stripe earlier this year.
