Paystack, Nigeria's answer to Stripe, has raised $8 million in a Series A funding round led by Stripe and joined by Visa, Tencent and Y Combinator.
Like Stripe, Lagos-based Paystack provides APIs that let merchants, with just a few lines of code, build online payment features.
In two years, the all-African team has developed five APIs, enabling developers to create online custom checkout experiences, build automated recurring billing systems, instantly send bulk transfers to any bank account in Nigeria, and verify the identity of customers.
Paystack now processes nearly 15% of all online payments in Africa's largest economy, powering tens of thousands of businesses of all sizes including telcos, airlines, and government agencies.
Having secured financial backing of some othe biggest payments players in the world, the startup now plans to expand across Africa, build out its infrastructure and grow its engineering team.
Shola Akinlade, CEO, Paystack, says: "As Paystack looks to expand rapidly across the continent, we’re thrilled to have the benefit of the deep experience of Stripe, Visa, and Tencent. Our ambition is to give African merchants the tools and services they need to go toe-to-toe with the best businesses in the world, and win."
Patrick Collison, CEO, Stripe, adds: "The Paystack founders are highly technical, fanatically customer oriented, and unrelentingly impatient. We’re excited to back such people in one of the world’s fastest-growing regions."