Paystack Investors Get 1440% ROI

It was a truly memorable day for the African startup ecosystem as it was a distribution day for individual and corporate investors who invested in Paystack.

Many investors took to Twitter to express their joy at the return on investment. Jason Nyoku, founder of IrokoTV who is also an investor, has confirmed the spread on social media.

The Angels who invested in the initial round of Paystack in 2016 achieved a ROI of around 1,440%. According to Njoku, that’s 14.4 times their money in just 5 years.

Paystack, a Lagos-based payments startup that helps merchants accept payments from their customers, has grown so much that it is said to process more than half of Nigeria’s online transactions.

Currently, more than 60,000 businesses in Nigeria and Ghana use the platform to collect online and offline payments.

Paystack was the first start-up outside of Nigeria to join Y Combinator (YC), an American seed stage accelerator.

Their success at YC opened the door for other Nigerian startups to enter YC, gain access to foreign investment, and garner significant rounds.
In 2020, American payments giant Stripe acquired Paystack in a deal worth more than $ 200 million (£ 76 billion). Stripe acquired Paystack to accelerate online commerce in Africa.

In 2018, stripe brought in $ 8 million in Series A staking featuring Visa, Tencent and others.

The Stripe-Paystack deal was a game-changer in the Nigerian startup ecosystem. More investors will be looking for a new “Paystack”. Nobody wants to be left behind.
Over the next few years, more and more investors will write checks as they see Nigeria as a market to exit startups.

Following Paystack’s participation in its Accelerator, YC invested $ 125,000 (£ 32.5 million) in Paystack at 7% equity. YC’s return on investment (ROI) will be around $ 14 million (£ 5.3 billion).

Source: – Nairametrics