Paystack is owned by Stripe, the US payments company, which acquired it in October 2020 for a reported US$200 million — the biggest startup acquisition in Nigeria's history at the time 1.
Founded in Lagos in 2016 by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, Paystack processes a large share of Nigeria's online payments and still trades under its own name — but the equity, and the ultimate ownership, now sit with a San Francisco company 1.
The twist is what has happened since. Paystack has become an acquirer itself, absorbing Nigerian fintechs like Allawee and a microfinance bank — folding more homegrown brands onto a US-owned rail. We track that pattern deal by deal in Who's Buying Africa, and set out what it means for the continent's payment infrastructure in The Great Convergence.
See where Paystack sits in the Cultural-Signal Index.