The Nigerian fintech startup OPay’s valuation has surged by more than 30% since its Series C funding round in 2021, according to recent corporate filings by Opera, an early investor.
This significant increase underscores the impact of Nigeria’s digital payments boom on the emergence of a new wave of financial technology companies.
In 2018, Opera acquired Paycom, a Nigerian mobile money operator, and rebranded it as OPay, thereby acquiring a stake in the company. Over time, Opera’s stake gradually decreased, reaching 6.4% by 2021.
However, in early 2023, Opera’s stake rose to 9.4% after it sold Nanobank, its Asian fintech subsidiary, to OPay in exchange for equity. In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commissionon April 24, Opera disclosed that its 9.4% stake in OPay was valued at $253 million. This implies that OPay’s valuation has increased to $2.7 billion, up from $2 billion in its previous funding round.
Opera initially valued its stake at $269 million by December 2023 but adjusted its fair value in newer filings, citing a valuation implied in a smaller financing transaction that occurred later in the year.
OPay has experienced significant growth in the past year, partly due to an untimely currency redesign that caused cash shortages for several weeks. The resulting cash scarcity prompted more people to turn to fintech apps like Moniepoint and OPay for transactions, leading to record-high national payment volumes in early 2023.
This momentum continued throughout the year, with annual digital payments increasing by over 50% to N611 trillion, according to the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement Scheme.
OPay, in particular, benefited greatly from this trend, quadrupling its user base and achieving over 60% revenue growth on a constant currency basis in 2023, as reported by Opera to shareholders.
However, despite its impressive growth, OPay, like other fintechs, grapples with fraud and customer safety concerns, prompting regulatory bodies such as the Central Bank of Nigeria to tighten rules on account safety.
