Africa-focused fintech company OPay has achieved a significant milestone, with its valuation now reaching $2.75 billion, as reported in recent regulatory filings from its minority investor, Opera Limited. While this increase in valuation is noteworthy, the filings also highlight a significant slowdown in unrealized fair value gains associated with OPay.
Opera Limited, an early investor in OPay, holds a 9.4% stake in the company, which is valued at approximately $258.3 million in 2024, a slight increase from $253.3 million in 2023. The filings reveal that Opera’s unrealized fair value gains from its investment in OPay were reported at $89.8 million in 2023. However, this figure plummeted to just $5 million in 2024, indicating a considerable deceleration in the growth of OPay’s market value.
This slowdown in growth reflects the broader challenges currently facing the global fintech ecosystem, particularly in light of a contraction in venture funding. Notably, high-profile fintech companies such as Klarna have experienced drastic reductions in their valuations. Klarna’s valuation, for instance, plummeted by 85%, dropping from a peak of $45.6 billion to $6.7 billion in 2023, as investors have become increasingly cautious amid rising interest rates and economic uncertainty.
Despite these global challenges, OPay’s ability to not only maintain but also slightly increase its valuation from its 2021 peak of $2 billion demonstrates continued investor confidence in the company. In its last funding round in 2021, OPay successfully raised $400 million from prominent investors, including SoftBank and Sequoia, which propelled its valuation to $2 billion. Since that time, OPay has significantly expanded its customer base, reportedly serving around 50 million users across various African countries. This growing user base, along with OPay’s ongoing expansion into new verticals such as payments, loans, and insurance, has likely played a crucial role in sustaining investor interest.
While the growth rate has slowed, OPay’s ability to maintain its valuation and even achieve modest increases suggests that investors still perceive potential in the company’s long-term strategy and market position. As global venture funding remains cautious, OPay’s capacity to retain investor trust could indicate a more stable future, particularly within Africa’s burgeoning digital economy.
The question remains whether OPay can continue to defy the global trend of valuation declines. However, its robust user base, diversified product offerings, and strong investor confidence position it as one of the more stable players in the fintech landscape.
