Paystack, the African payments giant acquired by Stripe in 2020, has officially reorganized into a holding company named The Stack Group (TSG). The restructuring, announced on Tuesday, January 20, 2026, marks a strategic pivot from a single product payment processor to a multi brand technology conglomerate.
The move coincides with the announcement that the group has achieved group level profitability after growing its payment volumes more than twelvefold since the Stripe acquisition.
Under this new Alphabet style structure, TSG serves as the parent company for four distinct business units. Paystack continues to operate as the core B2B merchant payments franchise. Zap is a consumer facing app focused on rapid bank transfers and everyday payments.
Paystack Microfinance Bank (MFB) is a standalone bank providing credit and banking rails to over 300,000 merchants. Finally, TSG Labs is a venture studio tasked with building beyond fintech, focusing on emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and stablecoins.
The ownership model of TSG introduces a unique layer of autonomy for the African team. While Stripe remains a major stakeholder, the holding company is jointly owned by Paystack CEO Shola Akinlade, Stripe, and Paystack employees known internally as Stacks.
Chief Operating Officer Amandine Lobelle noted that this structure ring fences regulatory risks, ensuring that the highly regulated banking and payment operations remain independent from the experimental projects incubated within TSG Labs.
By internalizing its banking rails through the MFB license, The Stack Group is now positioned to compete directly with neo banks like Moniepoint and OPay. The group can now hold deposits and offer credit based on its own transaction data, reducing its reliance on third party banking partners.
As TSG enters its second decade, the company plans to leverage its new structure to tackle broader challenges in Africa’s digital economy, moving from a transaction facilitator to a core financial operating system for the continent.
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