Nigerian fintech infrastructure startup Bloc acquires payments company Orchestrate
Bloc, the Nigerian full-service fintech and Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) infrastructure provider, has announced the acquisition of Orchestrate (previously Getwallets), a proprietary payments orchestration startup that gives businesses instant access to multiple payment providers with one integration.
This acquisition will enable Bloc to focus its core product strategy on delivery seamless Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) API products to its customers while Orchestrate leads its fintech infrastructure with its proprietary payments orchestration API.
Bloc, with its CBN-issued PSSP & Microfinance banking licenses, specializes in providing proprietary and aggregated APIs that allow businesses to offer banking and financial services to their customers while also handling most of the regulatory and compliance requirements on their behalf. Its stack of F/BaaS products and services empowers businesses to embed seamless digital financial services in their platform. Since 2021, Bloc has transitioned from offering solutions for utility payments to its current iteration as a full-service fintech infrastructure provider. Bloc has processed more than $30 million in the past year through its bill payments API alone. The company also recently launched its SuperAgency tool which allows licensed companies to offer agency banking services.
Edmund Olotu, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, Bloc: ''We are proud of our input in helping shape the African fintech space and excited to welcome the Orchestrate team into the Bloc family. Part of our vision has always been to empower businesses of all sizes to offer seamless payment solutions to their customers, which is essential not just to the experience of the end user but also to the sector’s growth. Jerry and his team have built an incredible platform that is a great fit with what we were looking to add to our suite of services so it made sense to acquire their proven expertise rather than building our own platform from scratch. This is an exciting evolution for both businesses as we look to grow and build even more solutions that ultimately supports the growth of African tech businesses in the coming years.''
Getwallets was founded in 2021 by Jerry Enebeli and Yewande Odumosu to offer an integrated payment and wallet framework allowing payment providers a more unified structure for their customers. Its pivot to a broader payments infrastructure company means, as Orchestrate, it can provide businesses instant access to multiple payment methods and providers globally through a single integration [currently available in Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, South Africa & the USA, with plans to extend support to more foreign payment providers and currencies in the near future]. Bloc’s acquisition of Orchestrate boosts the group’s capacity to offer fintech infrastructure such as online payments, subscription management, BNPL payment infrastructure, virtual wallets, bill payments, invoicing, etc, in its FinTech-as-a-Service suite of APIs.
Jerry Enebeli, Founder and CEO, Orchestrate: ''We are thrilled to bring our technology and know-how to the already incredible Bloc team. It was clear that our business growth goals aligned and that we could mutually benefit from combining our talent, resources and expertise to create a unique infrastructure that can power African FinTech. We’re looking forward to working together to close the fragmented gaps in cross-platform payments and powering many more businesses to scale their markets, whether in Africa or globally.''
Jerry and the Orchestrate team are joining Bloc, and “Orchestrate by Bloc” will continue as a separate app underneath the Bloc suite of products as we build our shared vision and brand together.
