Paystack
Also a provider — view Paystack’s profile →“Can Africa's leading payments API become the operating system for African business banking?”
Founded2015
HQLagos, Nigeria
FoundersShola Akinlade, Ezra Olubi
Total raised~$10M (pre-acquisition)
Latest roundAcquired by Stripe, October 2020
Valuation$200M+ (acquisition price)
IndustryInfrastructure / Payments
The story
Paystack started as Africa's answer to Stripe — clean APIs for online card acceptance for Nigerian businesses. After Stripe's 2020 acquisition it became Stripe's African beachhead and expanded across five+ markets. The 2026 acquisition of Ladder Microfinance Bank is the company's most material pivot: it moves Paystack from pure payments infrastructure into deposit-taking, lending, and banking-as-a-service, mirroring how Moniepoint and OPay used MFB licences to become full-stack financial platforms.
Product timeline
2015
Founded by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi in Lagos.· founding
2016
Joined Y Combinator W16; publicly launched payments platform.· launch
2018
Closed $8M Series A led by Stripe with Visa, Tencent, YC.· funding
2020
Acquired by Stripe for $200M+, the largest Nigerian startup exit at the time.· acquisition
2022
Expanded across Africa: Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt.· expansion
2024
Launched Zap consumer bank-transfer product in Nigeria.· consumer
2026
Acquired Ladder Microfinance Bank to launch Paystack MFB — lending and BaaS.· banking
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by Paystack
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
5 layers disclosed in Paystack’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Paystack (self-operated)Paystack Checkout (self-operated)Paystack Direct Debit (self-operated)Paystack Virtual Accounts (self-operated)Paystack Virtual Terminal (self-operated)Paystack Physical Terminal / SmartPeak P1000 (self-operated)Zap by Paystack (self-operated)
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
Lending
in the full report
FX & payouts
in the full report
Accounting
in the full report
Accounting gap: minor
7 more providers across 4 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.