It’s cutting 33 employees in Europe and the United Arab Emirates, where its engineering hub is located, to enable it to “localise costs and get closer to customers,” CEO Shola Akinlade said in a statement posted on X/Twitter.
“We’re changing our operating model to prioritise locating team members within the markets we serve,” he said.
No staff in Nigeria and the other markets in Africa where Paystack is operating will be impacted by the job cuts, the firm said.
The payment processing and services provider this month announced expansion into Ivory Coast, Egypt and Rwanda, bringing to seven its countries of operation on the continent, in addition to Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.
Founded in 2015 by two Nigerians including the CEO, Paystack was acquired by Patrick and John Collison’s payment-services giant Stripe for $200m in 2020.
Stripe, which has dual headquarters in San Francisco and Dublin, acquired Paystack to position itself for expansion in Africa, where traditionally underbanked markets combined with the potential posed by rapid digital adaption and economies largely characterised by high numbers of small and micro enterprises has accelerated the growth of the fintech sector.
In the three years following the acquisition, the firm’s “hiring philosophy was to recruit great talent regardless of location,” Mr Akinlade said, adding the restructuring will optimise manpower and customer services in African operations.
Africa, with a huge unbanked population and increased adoption of smartphone and digital technology, is attractive to investors seeking to leapfrog payments services.
Fintechs such as Interswitch, Flutterwave and Jumia Technologies have achieved billion-dollar-plus valuations.
The Collison brothers, founders of Stripe, are not the only Irish entrepreneurs to see the potential of African markets.
Clare man Tiernan Kennedy is the founder and CEO of Umba, a digital bank which operates in Nigeria and in Kenya, where it bought a majority shareholding in Daraja Microfinance Bank last year in order to access the market of 53 million people. Umba raised $15m in 2022 from a number of investors, including Dublin-based venture capital firm ACT. (Additional reporting Bloomberg)
