The Comparable Ep 4: Payments in Nigeria & the Philippines
A spotlight on Paystack in Nigeria & PayMongo in the Philippines.
Welcome to the fourth issue of The Comparable Companion, which provides summaries about the companies featured in our podcast, The Comparable. New episodes are released every three weeks, available on Spotify, Apple, YouTube and wherever else you listen to your podcasts!
In Episode 4 of our podcast (out now!), we spotlight two b2b payments players: Paystack in Nigeria and Paymongo in the Philippines. Both companies are graduates of renowned Silicon Valley-based incubator, Y Combinator, and both are investees of global payments giant Stripe, which also acquired Paystack in a landmark reported $200 million in 2020, the largest acquisition in Nigeria to date.
Paystack: Powering African Ambition
Paystack is a leading payment gateway based in Nigeria and building for the African continent. The company was founded in 2015 by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, both computer science graduates from Babcock University. Paystack’s COO Amandine Lobelle played a major role in Paystack’s acquisition by Stripe in 2020. The payments platform enables businesses to accept payments online and offline through a wide range of channels, including cards, bank transfers, USSD, and mobile money.
The company currently dominates Nigeria’s payments sector, reportedly processing over half of the country’s online payments, and is trusted by over 200,000 businesses across Africa. Paystack focuses on seamless integrations for both online and offline businesses.
Nigeria's Fintech Market Trends & Consumer Statistics
Mobile-first solutions addressing 60% financial exclusion rate in Nigeria’s population
Agent banking networks critical for cash-in/cash-out services
Huge rising fraud challenges requiring AI-driven security measures
Transaction Volume: In 2024, Nigeria processed over 108 billion mobile money transactions worth $1.68 trillion—a 20% increase from the previous year.
Mobile Penetration: Smartphone users are projected to exceed 140 million by the end of 2025, with an 87% mobile penetration rate fueling digital financial services.
Venture Investment: Nigeria attracted 36% of Africa’s fintech equity funding between 2020 and mid-2024, attracting global investors like Google, Visa, and QED.
PayMongo: Empowering Filipino Businesses to Thrive in a Digital Economy
Originally launched in 2019 to simplify online payments, PayMongo has evolved into a comprehensive financial platform, aiming to become the leading digital financial services provider in the Philippines.
Under its strategic transformation led by its current CEO Jojo Malalos, PayMongo aspires to build a future-ready financial ecosystem that goes beyond payments to offer growth capital, embedded finance infrastructure, instant settlements, and enterprise-grade security for Filipino businesses. PayMongo’s platform is designed for easy use, even for non-technical users, and is expanding into embedded finance and lending (akin to Stripe, a key strategic investor).
Philippines Key Market Trends
34% of Filipino shoppers regularly buy from cross-border e-commerce
The BNPL sector is forecasted to grow by 14.6% year-on-year, reaching $3.21 billion in 2025 and projected to hit $5.37 billion by 2030. BNPL solutions are increasingly popular as alternatives to traditional credit, with companies like Atome leading
Six digital banks operate in the country, serving 8.7 million and managing around $150 million in deposits as of mid-2024 but new digital bank licenses are expected, with a focus on serving underserved niches such as MSMEs and rural communities
Wealth management technology (Wealthtech) is gaining traction, offering digital investment platforms and personalized financial planning.
Only 35% of Filipinos feel they have sufficient access to credit.
Key Competitors: Include GCash and Maya (digital bank/superapp competitor).
Venture Investment: Philippines has 19% share of Southeast Asia’s venture capital, with fintech as the leading sector for investment. 2024 was a record year for deal flow, signalling strong investor confidence.
Paystack vs. Paymongo:
The i2i Ventures Comparable: Safepay
We’ve invested in a number of companies similar to the guests featured in our podcast series, and we feel it’s helpful to share our own comparable from our market in Pakistan for additional context. Akin to Paystack and PayMongo, we invested in Safepay in Pakistan in 2022, which is also a Y Combinator graduate and also received investment from Stripe. Safepay is a digital payments solution for merchants in Pakistan, and recently received commercial approval for their Payment Service Provider (PSP) license from the State Bank in Pakistan, allowing them to scale their operations and have an edge amongst their competition in the market. This is especially important as Pakistan’s instant payments infrastructure, Raast is now live — 35M+ users conducted $14B worth of transactions in FY24 in Pakistan.