Africa’s tech ecosystem is speedily moving from nascent to growth stage and is currently minting the next generation of founders that will solve some of the continent’s biggest problems. African founders who relied on external funding to start their business five years ago are now investing in a new generation of local founders. The ecosystem is experiencing a multiplication of success in terms of innovation and investment. And one such scenario that caught our eye is the “club” of successful founders affiliated with the Nigerian fintech company, Paystack.
We discovered that a number of startup founders scoring millions of dollars in valuation and dominating headlines in the tech world are alumni of the fintech company, founded by Ezra Olubi and Shola Akinlade in 2015 and acquired by US payment giant, Stripe, for $200 million in 2020.
Members of this club of former Paystack employees have either established startups solving hard problems on the continent or are leading the charge in startups that are doing so successfully. Along the way, they have built solutions that serve thousands of customers, gotten accepted into renowned international accelerators, or raised millions of dollars in funding from local and international investors, making a name for themselves at home and abroad.
What is it about the fintech company that is rousing its employees to jump off the Paystack ship to sail the turbulent sea that the African tech ecosystem sometimes is? Coincidence doesn’t quite describe it, as it’s not just 2 or 3 former employees that have gone on to found an influential startup of their own. It’s almost as though Paystack is quietly churning out tech industry leaders—but how?
We do not know. But we can at least tell you who the members of the club we’ve chosen to call the “Paystack Mafia” are, and what they do.
Abdulhammid Hassan
Role in Paystack: Product manager
After Paystack: Founder and CEO of Mono
Hassan joined the payment processing company Paystack in 2019 as a product manager. He left 11 months later to co-found a data startup, Voyance. He said that working at Paystack gave him all the insights on how successful startups are built and that he was using those lessons to build Voyance.
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