Stripe, the online payments company established by Limerick brothers Patrick and John Collison, has led an $8 million (€6.8 million) Series A funding round for the Nigerian start-up Paystack.
Other investors in the funding round include credit card giant Visa, Chinese investment company Tencent, seed accelerator Y Combinator, and a number of angel investors.
The latest round brings Paystack’s total investment to date to more than $10 million. Other backers include Comcast.
The fundraising effort is the first time that Stripe has led a funding round although it has made a number of minor acquisitions in recent years.
Patrick Collison, Stripe's chief executive, was quoted as saying that Stripe was excited to be backing Paystack.
“The Paystack founders are highly technical, fantastically customer oriented and unrelentingly impatient,” he said.
Online payments
Founded by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi in January 2016, Paystack has developed technology that lets businesses accept payments via credit card, debit card, money transfer and mobile money on their websites or mobile apps.
Established in January 2016, the company has grown to process nearly 15 per cent of all online payments in Africa’s largest economy.
Through the company’s payments interface, customers can pay with local and international cards, or directly from their bank accounts. Paystack also supports localised payment channels, including mobile money, QR code and USSD payments. Every payment is screened by fraud-monitoring systems to protect merchants from chargebacks, and Paystack’s direct bank integrations ensure high transaction success rates.
“As recently as 2015, it was really difficult for a developer or business owner in Nigeria to quickly start accepting online payments,” says Mr Akinlade, the company’s chief executive. “We started Paystack because we believe that better payments tools are one of the most important things that African businesses need to unlock their explosive potential.
“We think of Paystack as an amplifier of the incredible work that African business owners are already doing. With better technology tools, African businesses can be better equipped to play a growing role in the global economy,” Mr Akinlade added.
