Paystack, the Nigerian fintech giant acquired by Stripe in 2020, has undergone a significant organizational transformation with the introduction of a new holding company: The Stack Group (TSG). This new entity now sits atop Paystack and its expanding portfolio, bringing together the merchant payments business, the consumer app Zap, Paystack Microfinance Bank (MFB), and a new venture studio aimed at building future technologies. The shift marks a decisive step toward a more diversified and strategically structured business ecosystem.
A New Ownership Model Beyond Stripe
When Stripe purchased Paystack for $200 million, the company became a fully owned subsidiary of the American payments leader. With the creation of TSG, however, Paystack transitions into a shared ownership model. TSG is now jointly owned by:
- Paystack CEO Shola Akinlade
- Stripe
- Paystack employees, collectively known as Stacks
This approach gives workers and leadership a greater stake in the company’s long-term success. As Amandine Lobelle, TSG’s chief operating officer, explained, the structure rewards the individuals actively building the company while maintaining deep support from Stripe. She declined to reveal the precise ownership percentages but emphasised the balance of empowerment and global partnership.
The launch of TSG coincides with a milestone moment: Paystack has achieved group-wide profitability and sustained positive cash flows. Since the Stripe acquisition, the company has grown its transaction volumes more than twelvefold, laying a strong financial foundation for venture-building beyond payments.
According to CEO Shola Akinlade, the new structure “signals a larger scope of ambition” and sets the direction for the company’s next decade. It also reflects a broader strategic shift underway for over a year, during which Paystack has expanded from pure B2B payments to consumer financial services and banking.
Structuring for Multi-Brand Growth
With new verticals like Zap and Paystack MFB, Paystack’s portfolio has diversified. TSG formalises this evolution into a multi-brand technology group. The structure ensures:
- Paystack’s core merchant payments business stays focused and undiluted
- Zap and Paystack MFB operate with independence in Nigeria’s competitive financial market
- Regulatory oversight is cleaner and more aligned with individual business risks
- Cross-vertical confusion among regulators, merchants, and partners is avoided
Lobelle summarised it aptly:
We’re evolving from a single-product company to a multi-brand technology group… multiple brands, multiple technologies, more of a conglomerate.
Regulation Made Simpler
Payments, banking, and consumer financial products each carry different regulatory obligations. Housing them under a holding company makes risk management and licensing more efficient. Importantly, it also contains regulatory fallout within each subsidiary. For example, Zap’s ₦250 million ($190,000) fine would not have affected Paystack’s merchant business had TSG already been in place.
Paystack began in 2016, offering a cheaper, more efficient alternative to Nigeria’s legacy online payment processors. Within four years, it had achieved product–market fit, expanded across Africa, and secured one of the continent’s largest tech exits through its acquisition by Stripe.
Today, Paystack operates in seven African countries, processing trillions of naira each month. Its profitability has enabled the company to experiment without jeopardising the economics of its payments operations. New ventures such as TSG Labs will build products leveraging emerging technologies—including AI and stablecoins—to solve both fintech and non-fintech problems crucial to Africa’s digital future.
TSG will not immediately impose new leadership structures across its subsidiaries. Each business will build leadership organically based on maturity and operational complexity. A shared governance philosophy will guide the group, supported by a separate holding-company board. In time, employees may move across subsidiaries through an optional secondment programme designed to foster internal mobility.
Part of a Broader Trend in Nigerian Tech
TSG places Paystack among other major Nigerian tech firms—such as Moniepoint and Interswitch—that have adopted holding structures to support multi-business ecosystems. Such structures make it easier to incubate new ventures, acquire companies, or shut down experiments without harming the flagship brand.
Although Paystack is pushing into deeply competitive consumer markets dominated by companies with extensive physical distribution, the company remains confident. Lobelle noted that Paystack prefers to think in terms of “infinite games”—where the challenge lies not in defeating competitors but in continuously pushing the boundaries of its own ambition and solving customer needs.
While Paystack has considerable experience in online payments, its track record in consumer-facing physical distribution is limited. Its previous attempt, Paystack Terminal, struggled to replicate the company’s digital dominance. Nevertheless, the holding company’s structure enables bold experimentation across sectors without jeopardizing its core business.
Whether TSG can replicate Paystack’s success in its new verticals remains an open question. But its separation of concerns—core payments, consumer banking, and innovation initiatives—strengthens focus across the group. And the launch of moonshot projects inside TSG Labs signals a new chapter for the company.
As Akinlade reflected:
Having worked with thousands of businesses across the continent since 2016, it’s clear there are significant opportunities to support African companies beyond payments. TSG gives us the structure to tackle those challenges more directly.
