Paystack launches in Kenya to enable businesses receive payments

Pan-African payments startup Paystack, which was acquired by Stripe in October 2020 for $200 million, has been granted a Payment Service Provider license by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) to enable it kickstart operations in the East African country.

With this licence, Paystack will enable Kenyan businesses to accept both one-time as well as automated recurring card payments, collect payments from customers through several local and global payment channels, including M-Pesa, Card payments (Visa, Mastercard, American Express), and Apple Pay.

Additionally, merchants can also use Paystack's no-code Commerce tools (Payment Pages, Storefronts) to bring ideas to market beautifully and also monitor their business with the Paystack Merchant App.

Paystack was founded in 2015 by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, becoming the first Nigerian company to be accepted into the startup accelerator YCombinator. The company later expanded to Ghana in 2018 and to South Africa in 2021.

Paystack raised a total of about $12 million in different funding stages before its acquisition in October 2020 for more $200 million, according to Techloy data. The company has continued to operate independently, growing their operations in Africa and adding more international payment methods.

"In every country in which we operate, Paystack strives to build fast, secure, and reliable payment services for businesses and customers," says Caroline Muema, Paystack's Business Operations and Expansion Lead in Kenya in a statement.

Additional reporting by Loy Okezie.