Last year, Nigerian startup Paystack was bought by fintech giant Stripe in a $200 million deal that sent shockwaves across Africa’s tech ecosystem. Now with more validation for the company, Paystack — already operating in both Nigeria and Ghana — has positioned itself to expand and launch its next location in South Africa. “South Africa is one of the continent’s most important markets, and our launch here is a significant milestone in our mission to accelerate commerce across Africa,” the company shared in a statement. “We’re excited to continue building the financial infrastructure that empowers ambitious businesses in Africa, helps them scale and connects them to global markets.” According to the company’s statement, this new launch also “takes us one step closer to our goal of accelerating commerce and removing barriers to trade across Africa.” The company’s South African launch comes after a six-month pilot project that kickstarted a month after it was acquired by Stripe....

Paystack, a Nigeria-based startup that helps businesses in Africa get paid by anyone worldwide, announced this week that they raised $8 million in a Series A round led by Visa, Y Combinator, and Tencent. Another funder for the Lagos based startup is Stripe, which is interesting because both companies share similarities. Tech Crunch’s Ingrid Lunden explained why this might be. “I describe Paystack as “Stripe-like”, and in an interesting twist, the round is being led by none other than Stripe itself — a mark not just of how the latter (once a YC startup itself) is eyeing up like-minded global founders and businesses as it continues to grow, but also how Stripe understands the challenges of breaking into a region like Africa, and therefore sees an opportunity to work with and support those who are.” With this funding, the Paystack team plans to expand its engineering department and its reach across Africa. Merchants who use Paystack are able to build online payment features for their...