Paystack — Companies — The Republic

Why it is on record

First Nigerian startup admitted to Y Combinator (2016); acquired by Stripe in 2020 for a reported $200m+ — the largest US acquisition of a Nigerian startup at the time and the deal that globalised "Nigerian tech" as an asset class.

Record held

Landmark exit; YC first.

Founders

Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi (Y Combinator W16).

Headquarters

9, Allen Avenue, Ikeja (Nigerian operation); Stripe Inc. parent in San Francisco.

Lineage / corporate history

Founded 2015; YC W16; acquired by Stripe Inc. on 15 October 2020 for a reported $200m+ — at the time the largest acquisition of a Nigerian start-up.

Current leadership

CEO: Shola Akinlade.

Deep dive

Paystack was founded in 2015 by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi out of Lagos, became the first Nigerian company admitted to Y Combinator (W16), and was acquired by Stripe in October 2020 for a reported $200m+ — the largest single acquisition of a Nigerian start-up at that point and the transaction that validated the African payments thesis for Silicon Valley capital.

Its product — a developer-first payments API for African merchants — abstracted the complexity of Nigerian card processing (multiple acquirers, NIBSS rails, USSD, bank transfer) behind a single integration. Paystack now processes for a significant share of Nigerian e-commerce and SaaS companies, and the Stripe acquisition remains the reference exit event for the Nigerian fintech ecosystem.