In an interview with FORBES AFRICA, Joel Bronkowski, Paystack&#8217;s country lead in South Africa, discusses how the startup has facilitated integration with African regional payment channels, deepened security practices, and attracted top talent, following its acquisition by Stripe in 2020.



Paystack, a Nigerian fintech startup founded by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, has been making significant strides in the African market since its establishment in 2015. As the first Nigerian startup &nbsp;invited to join the Y Combinator accelerator program, Paystack has expanded its reach, serving over 60,000 businesses across Africa and processing billions of dollars in transactions annually.



In 2020, Paystack made headlines when it was acquired by Stripe, the Irish-American financial services company powering online payments for some of the world’s largest firms. This deal, reportedly valued at over $200 million, stands as the most substantial acquisition of an African startup and represents a pivotal moment for the continent&#8217;s tech ecosystem.



Since the merger with Stripe, what changes have occurred at Paystack? How has this acquisition empowered the startup to enhance its operations, refine its products, and enter new markets? Additionally, what challenges and opportunities lie ahead for Paystack and the broader African fintech sector?



To address these questions, FORBES AFRICA speaks to Joel Bronkowski, Paystack’s country lead in South Africa for insights into how the acquisition has enabled seamless integration with African regional payment channels, bolstered security measures, and attracted top-tier talent to the organization.



Touching on strategies for growth and expansion in African markets, Bronkowski elaborates on Paystack&#8217;s focus on expanding into North Africa and Francophone Africa, while strengthening its existing markets with reliable infrastructure.



“In addition to launching in new countries, we’re also focused on deepening the value we offer in our existing markets,” he says.



“Paystack is licensed in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and Kenya, and we never lose sight of the fact that thousands of businesses rely on us. We invest deeply in infrastructure, and this investment has earned us an unparalleled reputation for high reliability. Overall, we’re excited to explore newer markets while building deeper foundations in our existing ones.”



When addressing unique challenges and opportunities in African markets, Paystack&#8217;s approach, according to Bronkowski, involves extensive collaboration with stakeholders, including merchants, regulators, and ambitious companies, to tailor solutions to each market&#8217;s needs.



To create an omnichannel experience for African merchants, Bronkowski explains Paystack&#8217;s move beyond digital payments, including the introduction of the Paystack Terminal, aimed at unifying online and in-person payment experiences.



In order to adapt to fintech trends, build partnerships, and expand services, Paystack anticipates trends like the shift to bank transfers, and embraces commerce platforms, and plans to introduce innovative products such as an extension to Paystack Terminal and global payment methods like Apple Pay.



“Paystack has invested significantly in building direct integrations with over 40 platforms, which means that merchants who use those tools can immediately begin accepting payments with Paystack. These platforms include general ecommerce solutions like Shopify and WooCommerce, as well as specialized platforms like Commerce7 (for wineries), SiteMinder (for hotels), and Xero (for seamless accounting). We’re constantly investing in building new platform integrations that allow businesses in Africa to have access to these best-in-class tools to grow their businesses,&#8221; he says.



To promote financial inclusion and collaborative growth, Bronkowski outlines Paystack&#8217;s initiatives to incorporate regional payment methods, partner with other African fintechs, and provide resources, discounts, and insights to support startup growth.



“Many consumers across Africa operate outside of traditional bank or card-based payment systems. In recognition of this, Paystack has integrated channels like M-Pesa in Kenya and Mobile Money in Ghana, giving customers who primarily use these channels a chance to engage with the rest of the formal economy,” says Bronkowski.



“By tapping into these regional payment methods, businesses can reach a broad spectrum of users, ensuring that even those without bank accounts can access, transfer, and receive funds on the Paystack platform.”



He adds, “Understanding that it takes more than an API call to build a successful tech startup, we launched Paystack Catalyst – a suite of high-growth tools and resources to help tech startups in Africa scale. We partnered with companies like Stripe, Intercom, and Amazon Web Services (AWS), to offer the Paystack Startup Bundle, which includes discounts on best-in-class tools that startups use in their daily operations. Startups can access perks like $25,000 in free Paystack processing, $25,000 in AWS Activate Credits, 100% off their first year on Intercom, and more to help cut operating costs.”



Showcasing the success stories of African merchants benefiting from Paystack&#8217;s services, Bronkowski shares case studies highlighting how Paystack has positively impacted a variety of businesses, from e-commerce platforms like The Local Edit and healthtech, mPharma to financial services like PiggyVest and the implementation of custom solutions for companies like Burger King and UPS Nigeria.



“We process payments for some of the most ambitious organizations on the continent, from small businesses to tech startups to government agencies to enterprise businesses and global brands,” says Bronkowski.

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Paystack To Focus On Expansion Into North Africa and Francophone Africa And Strengthening Existing Markets

Google Launchpad Accelerator is a six-month acceleration program designed to rapidly accelerate the best start-ups from emerging markets. The program starts with a two-week all-expense-paid program in the Launchpad space in San Francisco.
The start-ups face an unrelenting barrage of mentorship sessions, presentations from Googlers and mentors, and topics spanning from goal-setting to artificial intelligence.
I had the chance to be one of the mentors for these start-ups, being in daily contact and observing their progress. The air in the Launchpad space is filled with the wanting to learn new things. The start-ups are picked as the best from their region and immediately subject to questioning everything about their business. The first two days are the most brutal; as a mentor I could see some of the start-ups being deconstructed and having to start again from the beginning.
The one thing that separates all the start-ups in Launchpad from all the others is their drive to solve problems and learn new things. By the third and fourth day of the first week, the teams are already adjusting their strategies and measurable improvements can be seen.
What’s clear from the whole experience is that start-ups, around the whole world, face similar challenges. The camaraderie and connection you see among the start-ups stems from the entrepreneurs being very similar people.
Launchpad is primarily a two-week onsite activity in San Francisco and the following half year support. Launchpad is not asking for any equity in the start-ups. Other accelerator programs, such as Y Combinator and 500 Startups, are longer-term programs which focus on getting investment after going through the acceleration process and connects the start-ups with more external partners. Launchpad picks the best start-ups from emerging markets with existing traction and functioning product and tries to expose them to the Silicon Valley approach as well as the access to Google directly.
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For African start-ups, this is invaluable.
“The biggest struggle for our business is in getting the resources needed for business success &#8211; people, finances, and enabling infrastructure,” says Lanre Oyedotun, Co-Founder and CEO of Delivery Science, the start-up that developed FieldInsight, an app that helps organizations obtain data, visibility, and control over everything going on in the field.
“It’s a big struggle to build the right partnerships needed to start and grow the business. When you’re small, it’s quite difficult to partner with bigger organizations,” says Shola Akinlade, Co-Founder and CEO of Paystack, which helps businesses accept payments, from all channels, from their customers.
Organizations don’t get much bigger than Google.
“Google is an iconic company and it has managed to build a reputation for solid technology tools and infrastructure, while maintaining world-class people operations. No organization in the world epitomizes scale more than Google. We want to learn how Google did that, how they managed rapid scaling and how we can apply those lessons to our organization,” says Iyinioluwa Aboyeji, the Managing Director and CEO of Flutterwave, a technology and infrastructure platform for processing payments across Africa.
A large proportion of Africa’s recent economic growth comes from investment in technology. Tech start-ups are important for the development of the continent.
“By 2025 Africa will have 800 million people below the age of 25. Humanity is faced with a potential catastrophe of epic proportions unless they receive adequate capacity development,” says Adetunji Adegbesan, the Founder and CEO of Gidi Mobile, a start-up that uses mastery learning to connect Africans to economic opportunity at scale.
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To help Africans make the most of this economic opportunity is JUMO, the largest scale, lowest cost financial services platform for emerging markets.
“In the emerging markets, the vast majority of people have no access to good financial choices. We are creating access at an unprecedented rate. We help people to borrow and save at the lowest price and with products that help them improve their lives. JUMO is a multi-bank marketplace where banks compete to give customer the best deal on their phone using only behavioral data,” says Andrew Watkins-Ball, the CEO and Founder of JUMO.
“Launchpad is an incredible opportunity to work with hugely experienced people from a broad array of disciplines, helping us to solve the big challenges that we are experiencing as we scale our company. We are being given incredible access to the Valley eco-system of investors, large businesses and potential mentors. It is great to connect with start-ups from all over the world that are solving really big problems,” says Watkins-Ball.
Africa has many problems to solve and, with the help of Launchpad, these start-ups are doing their bit to provide some of the solutions. &#8211; Written by Jan Beránek, Google Launchpad mentor

Tag: Paystack

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Paystack To Focus On Expansion Into North Africa and Francophone Africa And Strengthening Existing Markets

African Start-Ups Boosted By Google Launchpad Accelerator