The archive · Money & Fintech · Strategic decision · 2018–2026
OPay bet agent payments replace Nigeria's cash; SoftBank's first Africa deal
Opera-founded OPay scaled 140K agents then a $400M SoftBank-led round at $2B; ride-hail died in 2020, payments now target a $4B US IPO
OPay
What the business is
A Nigerian mobile payments and agent-banking platform founded by Opera, offering transfers, bill payments, airtime and merchant services.
Starting capital：$50M (2019) plus $120M Series B from Chinese investors
How it started
Opera, the Norwegian browser company acquired by Chinese investors in 2016, founded OPay in 2018 in Lagos to turn its African user base into a fintech business. It launched a payments wallet alongside motorcycle ride-hailing ORide and food delivery OFood, raising $50M in June 2019 and a $120M Series B in November 2019 from Meituan-Dianping, Sequoia China, Source Code Capital and others, reaching 140,000 agents and $10M in daily transaction volume.
What happened
In 2020, a Lagos government ban on motorcycle ride-hailing plus the pandemic forced OPay to close ORide and its bike-sharing business, leaving payments as the core bet. In August 2021 SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led a $400M Series C valuing OPay at $2B, its first investment in Africa; the company said monthly transaction volumes exceeded $3B and it would replicate the model in Egypt and the Middle East.
How it ended up
OPay kept scaling in Nigeria and Egypt; by 2025 Opera's 9.5% stake implied a valuation around $3.1B. In 2026 it prepared a US IPO targeting about $4B with Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan engaged, and Africa's Standard Bank was in early talks to take a pre-IPO stake.
Background
OPay was founded in 2018 by Opera, the Norwegian browser company that Chinese investors acquired in 2016, as the financial engine of its Africa internet business. Opera's browser ranked No. 2 in Africa, and the bet was that this distribution, plus Chinese venture capital, could seed a super app for a cash-heavy economy: payments, motorcycle ride-hailing, food delivery and SME tools. By November 2019, after a $50M raise and a $120M Series B from Meituan-Dianping, Sequoia China and others, OPay counted 140,000 agents and $10M in daily transaction volume in Nigeria.
The super-app bet partly failed: in 2020 a Lagos government ban on motorcycle ride-hailing and the pandemic forced OPay to shut ORide and its bike-sharing business. What survived was the payments rail. In August 2021, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led a $400M Series C valuing OPay at $2 billion, its first investment in Africa; the company reported monthly transaction volumes above $3 billion and said it would replicate its model in Egypt and the Middle East.
OPay continued to scale in Nigeria and Egypt through 2025, when Opera's 9.5% stake implied a valuation near $3.1 billion. By August 2026, reports said OPay had hired Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan for a US IPO targeting about $4 billion, and Standard Bank was weighing a pre-IPO stake. The company that started as a super app was now one of Nigeria's biggest digital financial platforms heading for public markets.
What has to be true
- Opera's browser gave OPay unmatched distribution and data on African users, lowering customer acquisition costs versus standalone fintechs.
- The agent network matched how cash-based Nigerians actually transact, making the platform a bridge rather than a leap.
- Chinese investors brought playbooks from Meituan and Alipay-style ecosystems, funding the multi-service experiment cheaply.
- When ride-hailing died, the company had already built the payments layer that SoftBank was willing to value at $2B.
What can be applied
When a platform bets on multiple high-frequency services, the payments rail is the durable asset: the ride-hailing and delivery side can die while the wallet underneath keeps compounding value.
Aftermath
As of August 2026, OPay was scaling toward a public listing: reports said it had engaged Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan for a US IPO that could value it around $4 billion, up from $2 billion in 2021, and Standard Bank Group was in early talks to acquire a stake. Opera still held roughly 9.5% of the company, which had implied a valuation of about $3.1 billion in 2025. OPay continued to operate in Nigeria and Egypt, focused on mobile payments, transfers and merchant services.
Sources
- Opera's Africa fintech startup OPay gains $120M from Chinese investors
- SoftBank Makes First Africa Bet on OPay at $2 Billion Valuation
- Standard Bank eyes stake in OPay ahead of $4bn US IPO
- SoftBank leads $400m funding round for Nigerian fintech
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