“Nigerian Fintech Company Interswitch Could Become Africa’s First Public Startup Unicorn” via TechCrunch by @JakeRBright (Twitter) http://tcrn.ch/1Vxuzb8
Am I missing all the coverage or does Interswitch not get as much attention for being a startup success story as one might imagine?
Interswitch is never always thought as a startup or internet company.
But actually it is. Also I do not think the founders are quite active in Nigerian tech conversations like you would expect being pioneers.
Guess after being in biz since 2002 you no longer carry the startup label. 
But it certainly is a fintech company that has proven its worth. No, I’m not employed by Interswitch. Just think it’s an interesting example of a Nigerian tech company that’s the real deal.
Imagine how absurd a conversation would sound if someone said “eTranzact is a failed startup…”.
Early 2000s was a good time for Nigerian fintech startups.
Its always easy to spot a pattern in retrospect. By then, time has passed and its too late.
I disagree with you though. There will still be new interesting fintech.companies in the coming years out of Nigeria. I know one particularly.
Wasn’t saying there won’t be new ones, just that there were some good ones a while back. Can you mention the new one you’re thinking about or in stealth?
Paystack is coming, and its quite exciting what they are building. I’m envious of their work in a good way. Super team, and a great product.
@xolubi can tell you more.
Yes, of course! Have been following discussions on Radar about Paystack.
I will be keeping close eyes on this with a special interest in seeing how Helios and Interswitch passes the necessary checks to list a company on LSE - most importantly the anti-laundry checks - as they have been involved with a lot of dodgy characters and investments.
The most notable ones being all the free money they have been receiving from the ADB mafia in “developing African’s Infrastructure” - http://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/article/afdb-invests-30-million-in-helios-investors-ii-to-support-regional-economic-development-in-africa-8187/
I guess normal folks like me will want LSE to do thier due diligence in order to confirm that the money that is supposed to be used to provide clean water in my village is not used in buying an Aston Martin for a hedge fund manager in the UK…
Interswitch is a company with a very smart and visionary founder (mitchell Elegbe) that leverage a monopoly setup with the banks to create the basic infrastructure for electronic transactions. Probably a startup in 2002 but not now. I don’t know if it fits in the fintech space. More like an IT services company than a pure tech play since it uses postilion and a variety of other technologies.
I am sure the Helios shareholders want to exit via a private sale but I hope it goes public. It is a proxy for electronic payments in Nigeria and it could do a lot more as a public company (hire far better skills, strategic partnerships).
About your concerns Tola, hope you know that helios as a fund invests money on behalf of not just private investors but even non-profit pension funds and governments (sovereign). This is because Helios has proven to be a visionary investor with Interswitch, Helios Towers and Equity Bank amongst some of its prominent big wins. Of course, the fact that they are exiting points to the fact that with currencies down all across Africa and with Nigerian economy following the trend with oil, some of its investors probably want to recoup their money.
On fin-tech, how many are there in Nigerian eco-system. Both Kenya & SA have a number of fin-tech accelerators but surprised that none exist in Nigeria.
Not a big fan of Interswitch. Pretty stagnant with no recent innovation et al. They could make transactions way easier in Nigeria, but as usual they are playing safe like most Nigerian businesses are prone to doing.
I hope Paystack overtakes Quickteller very soon (it is an Interswitch service, right?)
Providing services to Nigerian banks is as corrupt and as nepotistic as Nigerian governmenth. Its not what you know but who you know. Meanwhile london and new york has hundreds of fin tech firms that run on innovation. Until the banks change their culture they will continue importing software from India, South Africa and the US .
Definitely agree that the banks need to be more proactive in working with startups - it seems Access has a head start with paystack and pay with capture (startup?) but is the model right? Will these tech companies be allowed to flourish or will they have to dance to the tune of their master. I have seen many PWC adverts but still looking for a merchant that accepts payment. Free coffee for anyone who points one out to me!!
Challenge accepted.
Unicorn alert:
Now that sounds very familiar. I guess the Hegde Fund manager will be getting his Aston afterall…
I think access has always been forward minded when it comes to technology and processes and paystack and paywithcapture are in line with that. But paystack and paywithcapture are not innovative, they are clones of interswitches webpay and paypal.
But I think that the general model of cards as a payment mechanism is seriously limited. For example, Tanzania does 95 million mobile money transactions PER MONTH. This is a country with one third of Nigerias population, 32 million mobile subscribers as against Nigerias 150 million and with half as many people living in cities. Nigeria in 2015 has less than 35 million transactions both electronic and non per month.So mobile money is a far more popular payments mechanism than cards.
The question is why does Nigeria continue to sabotage the potential of mobile money? First they criticized mpesa on interoperability then along comes Tanzania with an interoperable model that works. Honestly, emefiele, sanusi, fatokun, lemo should all be beaten with a big stick for their backwardsness on mobile money.
When Nigeria takes the bold step of going all in on mobile money you will see electronic payments explode. Kenya did 27 billion usd in mobile payments in 2014. Nigeria should be doing at least 150 billion usd. It would mean real cashless with less tattered notes and less transactional costs.
Good posts but some inaccurate assumptions from some too