Nigeria-based Paystack closes Series A on $8m

August 29, 2018

Nigeria-based payments platform Paystack has raised $8m in its Series A round of funding.

The round was led by fellow digital payments startup Stripe, while participation also came from Visa, Tencent and Y Combinator. Other contributions to the round came from angel investors including DST Global managing partner Tom Stafford, Aluko & Oyebode founding partner Gbenga Oyebode and Innovation Partners Africa co-founder Dale Mathias.

Paystack develops payment APIs which enable businesses to build custom payment solutions. Its services enable the creation of custom checkout experiences, automated recurring billing systems, and the ability to send bulk transfers to any bank account in Nigeria, among other services.

The company’s technology enables businesses to accept transactions through card, bank transfers, QR scanning, and mobile payments. Additional payment methods are in the pipeline including POS and mCash.

All payments made through its technology are automatically monitored for fraud to protect merchants from chargebacks and fake transactions.

Over the past two years, the company has developed to process around 15 per cent of digital payments in Nigeria, according to the company.

Proceeds from the round will be used to support the scaling of Paystack’s engineering team, improve its infrastructure and accelerate expansion across Africa.

Paystack CEO and co-founder Shola Akinlade said, “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.”

This new funding round brings the company’s total funding efforts to over $10m. Existing backers in Paystack include Tencent, Y Combinator, Comcast Ventures Catalyst Fund, Blue Haven Ventures, and Ventures Platform.