This week, it began raining in Lagos. It was a special rain: the fintech company, Paystack, which was acquired for about $200 million by America’s Stripe, started paying its investors. A tweet told us, “By all accounts today was distribution day for all the investors in @Paystack, and their money is now in the bank. Huge returns to be had for many – big day for African startup ecosystem”. And an investor took the message home: “The angels who invested in the seed round of Paystack back in 2016 made ~1,440% ROI. That’s x14.4 their money in only 5 years. Paystack raised at various SAFE valuations between $5m and $10m.”
The angels who invested in the seed round of Paystack back in 2016 made ~1,440% ROI. That’s x14.4 their money in only 5 years. Paystack raised at various SAFE valuations between $5m and $10m. Most of the people in my network invested at $7m valuation cap (which we all agree at the time seemed a bit rich), but Oo was convincing and Shola seemed like he knew what he was doing. The $1.3m from angel investors’ total return, although I asked many different ways Shola wouldn’t tell me, was between $13-17m by my calculation. In USD o, so protected from the macro devaluations and inflation destroying so much value from this region. This was the kind of deal the ecosystem had been yearning for all these years and the most likely candidate was always going to be Paystack
By all accounts today was distribution day for all the investors in @Paystack, and their money is now in the bank. Huge returns to be had for many – big day for African startup ecosystem
— Tom Jackson (@tomjackson1988) February 17, 2021
Stripe Acquires Nigeria’s Paystack for More than $200 Million
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