| 2020 |
was the year we would never forget, as the COVID 19 pandemic hit the world in the harshest global meltdown, in recent times. However, 2020, was also a year where some immense discoveries were made and some huge innovations and transactions were also achieved, especially in Nigeria, and Africa. One of such achievements was the creation of a digital payment company called Paystack, by two young Nigerians, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, and its subsequent sale to a top American e-payment company, Stripe.
It all started when Ezra and Shola, met as students at Babcock University, in Ogun State. “I grew up in Lagos.
And I started writing software around 2002, 2003. That’s when I met Ezra. We went to school together… Babcock University”. Shola Akinlade narrated. They bonded due to their love for technology and started to work on their dream from their noisy dormitory. “Sometime in 2015, I figured out I could charge a card from my computer. I thought it was cool”. When he discovered this, Akinlade showed it to OO Nwoye, who told him about Stripe. The duo of Akinlade and Ezra had unknowingly modeled their Tech startup after Stripe. Stripe is an American financial services and software company, founded in 2010, with headquarters in San Francisco, California. The company offers payment processing software and application programming interfaces for e-commerce. In a nutshell, the company facilitates online payments and transactions. When Ezra and Akinlabi, founded Paystack, they infused a lot of similar things that Stripe and Visa were doing, and thus expanded the capacity of Paystack. “We became the first Nigerian company to get into YC”. (Y Combinator, is an American seed money startup accelerator, launched in March 2005. It has been used to launch over 2,000 companies, including Stripe) in 2016. “Our story was very simple. The only way we could describe Paystack was, ‘it’s like Stripe for Africa.’ We raised our Series A, $8m from Stripe and Visa because both companies are aligned. And so, people started suggesting to us to meet Stripe”.
Their activities caught the attention of Stripe, who approached them for a sale. Of course, Ezra and Akinlade were not keen on selling Paystack, but after several meetings, discussions, and agreements, Stripe acquired Paystack for over $200 million (N76 Billion Naira). An acquisition that has been described by TechCrunch, as ‘The biggest startup acquisition to come out of Nigeria to date’. It also described the acquisition as ‘The biggest Stripe acquisition, anywhere in the world to date.
What the Acquisition Will Do For Paystack
Needless to say, that Ezra and Akinlade are living their dream, running an IT company, and helping people to start and scale up internet businesses, and thus increase the GDP of the internet, etc. Paystack’s acquisition has helped them to expand their business to other markets in Africa, and pursue their vision of accelerating online commerce, across Africa. Interestingly, they had always had that vision, but the acquisition helped them accelerate it faster. And they are already achieving many milestones in that dream, between 2020 when the acquisition happened, and the 3rd quarter of 2021.
Paystack, has since the acquisition, continued to operate independently, and there have been no major disruptions to its services. “With Stripe’s support and expertise, we will provide deeper integrations with global platforms, and accelerate our geographic expansion,” the company had said during a media briefing. Interestingly, Nigeria, indeed Lagos, and Abuja, are bubbling with lots of techies and coders, all looking for an opportunity to showcase what they have.
Encouragement to Other Startups
Akinlade and Ezra’s story is inspiring, especially to young entrepreneurs in Nigeria, and across the world; so they can continue to push their dreams against all odds. “The acquisition of Paystack, by one of the most sophisticated companies in Silicon Valley, definitely unlocked lots of opportunities. This shows people that you can build your dreams and get them done. Your talents, can create opportunities for you and provide the resources to achieve them. I’m a product guy. I just want to work. I just want to ship things. I just want to build stuff. This was the dream and I’m living the dream,” Akinlade said.
