Interswitch: An African Fintech Powerhouse

Transaction processing and digital payments in Africa

My name is Mikal — I’m an early-stage tech investor and I was born in Asia, grew up in Africa and now live in the US. Every week I break down a fast-growing business in an emerging market to understand its product, market and growth strategy.

This week I’m breaking down Nigerian fintech startup Interswitch. This piece was originally published here.

Fintech is one of the top two most active areas for tech entrepreneurship and venture capital financing in emerging markets. The financial systems built in the West over centuries — both consumer-facing and business banking — are far more robust in comparison to the limited access to financial services that most ordinary people face in countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America. This gap has attracted some of the best and brightest entrepreneurs who have built huge startups like Nubank, Flutterwave and Grab and many more.

In Africa, one of the earliest fintech startups to be founded was Interswitch, a Nigerian fintech unicorn. Interswitch is a payments company offering a broad range of transaction processing services as well as a range of financial services to businesses and consumers across a number of African countries. Interswitch was founded in 2002 and…