Grace Ashiru
Africa’s largest bank by assets has deepened its relationship with the continent’s most prominent fintech listing, leading a landmark refinancing deal that signals how far Optasia has travelled from startup to institutional-grade borrower.
Optasia has closed a $330 million syndicated financing facility to refinance its existing debt and support future growth. The facility has a three-year tenor and consists of a $180 million term loan and a $150 million working capital facility — representing an increase of $105 million over the previous arrangement. Rand Merchant Bank and Standard Bank acted as lead arrangers and underwriters, with RMB, Standard Bank, Nedbank, and Absa all participating in the syndicate pool.
Standard Bank acted as joint mandated lead arranger and underwriter, effectively anchoring Optasia’s balance sheet as it transitions from a high-growth startup to a continental infrastructure provider. Optasia, which made history in November 2025 as the largest fintech IPO on the JSE, uses proprietary AI to provide credit scoring and micro-lending, processing alternative mobile data to extend credit to consumers who lack formal financial histories — a segment traditional banks have historically struggled to reach.
The transaction comes barely two weeks after FirstRand increased its shareholding in Optasia to 26.1%, spending R1.48 billion to acquire an additional 6 per cent stake from founder Bassim Haidar. FirstRand first invested in Optasia ahead of the company’s JSE listing in October 2025.
Optasia processed more than 34 million transactions daily and reached 430 million users in 2025, with nearly 900 million people having access to its platform across 38 countries spanning Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Europe. In its first full year as a public company, revenue jumped 76 per cent to $265.4 million, adjusted EBITDA rose 52 per cent to $115 million, and credit facilitated for partners climbed 44 per cent to $5.5 billion — with a notably low default rate of 1.2 per cent.
Optasia CEO Salvador Anglada pointed to the continent’s fintech market being projected to reach $65 billion by 2030, describing the current moment as the beginning of an exciting next phase of expansion. For Standard Bank, Jameel Nagdee, executive VP of structured capital, said the deal deepens a long-standing relationship and reinforces the bank’s credentials as a partner across multiple funding cycles — a shift in how Africa’s legacy financial institutions are increasingly positioning themselves not as competitors to fintechs but as the capital infrastructure behind them.
