Paystack, the payments company building technology for ambitious businesses across Africa, has announced the launch of The Stack Group (TSG), a new parent holding company that will bring together Paystack and a growing family of tech-focused brands under a single corporate umbrella.
TSG has been established to aggregate and support a set of complementary businesses operating across payments, banking, and emerging technologies. Founding shareholders of The Stack Group include global payments company Stripe, Paystack Founder and CEO Shola Akinlade, and existing Paystack employees. Agreements establishing TSG as the parent holding company were signed in October 2025 and remain subject to the requisite regulatory approvals.
The launch of TSG marks a significant milestone for Paystack, coinciding with the company’s 10th anniversary in January 2026. Since its acquisition by Stripe in 2020, Paystack has reported more than 12x growth in payment volumes and has achieved profitability at a group level. This growth has been driven by a product-first approach to expansion across Africa, with Paystack now licensed and operational in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, and regulatory approvals secured for Egypt and Rwanda. Together, these markets represent approximately 46% of Africa’s GDP.
Over the past decade, Paystack has worked with hundreds of thousands of businesses across the continent, ranging from early-stage startups to large enterprises. This exposure has shaped the company’s understanding of the structural and operational challenges African businesses face, informing a broader ambition to build tools that extend beyond payments and support businesses at multiple stages of growth.
TSG launches as the parent holding company to a family of businesses that innovate across distinct but interconnected domains. These include Paystack, which focuses on merchant payments; Zap, which operates in the consumer payments space; Paystack Microfinance Bank (MFB), which provides regulated banking services; and TSG Labs, a new venture studio and incubator that will explore emerging technologies and build new products both within and beyond fintech, including AI-led offerings.
The formation of Paystack Microfinance Bank in Nigeria has been a key step in the group’s evolution. Operating as a standalone bank, Paystack MFB enables the group to internalise critical financial infrastructure and deliver core banking and credit services to more than 300,000 Nigerian merchants. By bringing these financial rails in-house, the group is positioned to develop compliant, end-to-end money movement solutions that address longstanding gaps in Africa’s financial ecosystem.
Under The Stack Group, each company will continue to operate independently, while benefiting from shared values, deep product expertise, and a common approach to solving Africa-specific challenges through technology. The structure is designed to allow each brand to move quickly within its domain, while enabling collaboration and knowledge-sharing across the group.
Shola Akinlade, Founder and CEO of Paystack, said the launch of TSG reflects a broader ambition for the next phase of the company’s journey.
“The launch of TSG signals a larger scope of ambition for us and sets the tone for the next decade of our company,” Akinlade said. “Having worked with thousands of companies across the continent since 2016, it is clear that there are significant opportunities to support businesses beyond payments, and TSG enables us to address the challenges African companies face.”
He also acknowledged Stripe’s ongoing role in supporting Paystack’s growth. “Thank you to the Stripe team for their continued belief in Africa’s potential, and in our ability to create transformative technology companies for the continent, and beyond.”
With The Stack Group, Paystack is positioning itself not just as a payments provider, but as a long-term builder of technology infrastructure for Africa. As the group expands its portfolio across financial services and emerging technologies, TSG aims to support African ambition by creating tools that are locally relevant, globally competitive, and built to scale.
