African payment solutions company, Paystack, has announced the launch of a new holding company, The Stack Group (TSG), in a strategic move to unify its expanding portfolio of technology-driven brands under a single corporate structure.
The new entity will serve as the parent company for Paystack and other related businesses, allowing the group to scale beyond payments while maintaining operational independence across its brands. Founding shareholders of TSG include global payments firm Stripe, Paystack founder and Chief Executive Officer Shola Akinlade, and existing Paystack employees. Agreements establishing TSG were signed in October 2025 and remain subject to regulatory approvals.
The announcement coincides with Paystack’s 10th anniversary, which the company marks in January 2026.
Since its acquisition by Stripe in 2020, Paystack said it has increased its payment volumes twelvefold and expanded operations across Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. The company has also secured regulatory approvals to operate in Egypt and Rwanda. According to Paystack, these markets collectively account for about 46 per cent of Africa’s gross domestic product.
The company attributed its growth and profitability to a product-led approach to pan-African expansion. It also highlighted its recent entry into consumer banking following the launch of Paystack Microfinance Bank (MFB) in Nigeria, after acquiring Ladder Microfinance Bank.
Paystack said the microfinance bank enables it to internalise core financial infrastructure and provide banking and credit services to more than 300,000 Nigerian merchants. The development is expected to support the creation of compliant, end-to-end money movement solutions tailored to African businesses.
Under the new structure, TSG will oversee a family of complementary brands, including Paystack’s merchant payment platform, its consumer payments product Zap, Paystack MFB, and TSG Labs, a new unit focused on emerging technologies and the development of products within and outside the financial technology space.
Commenting on the launch, Akinlade said the formation of TSG reflects the company’s broader ambitions for the next decade.
“The launch of TSG signals a larger scope of ambition for us. Having worked with thousands of businesses across Africa, we see significant opportunities to support companies beyond payments,” he said, thanking Stripe for its continued support and confidence in Africa’s technology ecosystem.
