“Can Africa's leading payments API become the operating system for African business banking?”
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.
Paystack discloses Paystack Microfinance Bank (in-house) as its banking provider, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
Paystack does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through Paystack Microfinance Bank (in-house).
Paystack processes payments through 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) and Zap by Paystack (self-operated).
Paystack's lending and capital products are provided by Paystack MFB (in-house).
Paystack uses Paystack Transfers (self-operated) for FX and cross-border payouts.
Paystack integrates with Xero.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 5 layers in Paystack's stack: Payments / PSP (Paystack (self-operated), Paystack Checkout (self-operated), Paystack Direct Debit (self-operated), Paystack Virtual Accounts (self-operated) and 3 others); Banking / BaaS (Paystack Microfinance Bank (in-house)); Lending (Paystack MFB (in-house), Paystack MFB working-capital loans (launching), Overdrafts (planned) and Consumer credit (planned)); FX & payouts (Paystack Transfers (self-operated)); Accounting (Xero).
Paystack was founded by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi and is founded in 2015, headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria.
Paystack has raised ~$10M (pre-acquisition) in total (latest round: Acquired by Stripe, October 2020; valuation: $200M+ (acquisition price)).
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Paystack and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.