OPay Eyes $4bn US IPO, Engages Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan

Opay targets $4bn valuation in potential US IPO, leveraging large customer base and transaction volumes to attract global investors.

Opay, a financial technology firm, has engaged Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. as it advances plans for an initial public offering (IPO), leveraging its massive customer base and transaction volumes to court global investors.

According to a Bloomberg report, the SoftBank-backed payments platform with deep roots in Nigeria was considering a listing in the United States, targeting a valuation of about $4 billion.

The report said the company could proceed with the offering later this year, although the timing and size of the transaction were still under consideration.

Neither OPay nor the banks involved have publicly commented on the proposed transaction.

If consummated at the projected valuation, the IPO would mark a major leap from the company’s last publicly disclosed valuation in 2021, when it raised $400 million in a Series C funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 at a valuation of approximately $2 billion.

That round was among the largest venture capital raises ever recorded for an African-focused startup at the time.

Founded in 2018 by Opera-backed investors, OPay began as a super-app with ambitions spanning ride-hailing, food delivery, and logistics before a strategic pivot transformed it into one of Nigeria’s dominant digital financial platforms.

The company’s retreat from transport and logistics followed the Lagos State Government’s restrictions on commercial motorcycles in 2020, forcing a sharp restructuring that has since become a textbook case in startup adaptation.

Since then, OPay has focused almost exclusively on financial services, building a vast agent banking and merchant payments ecosystem that has helped drive its rapid growth across Nigeria’s retail payments landscape.

The company disclosed that it serviced more than 30 million registered users, operating through over 500,000 agents nationwide, making it one of the largest financial access platforms in the country.

Its rise has coincided with Nigeria’s aggressive cashless policy drive and the rapid expansion of agency banking, which has reshaped retail financial transactions in Africa’s largest economy.

Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) shows that electronic payment transactions in the country have risen sharply in recent years, with fintechs increasingly taking market share from traditional banks in low-value, high-volume retail payments.

For OPay’s early investors, including SoftBank Group Corp., Sequoia China, Redpoint China and Source Code Capital, a US listing would provide a long-anticipated liquidity event while offering the company access to deeper pools of global capital.

The planned flotation also comes amid a broader push by African fintech firms to tap international capital markets. Another African payment giant, Flutterwave, has repeatedly signalled its intention to pursue an IPO, though no timeline has been formally announced.

Industry analysts say a successful OPay listing would be interpreted as a referendum on investor appetite for African digital finance plays at a time when global venture funding has become more selective and valuation discipline has returned to technology markets.