Optasia's microfinance push drives 45% revenue growth

Optasia generated $270 million in revenue in the first nine months of 2026, up 45% year on year, as the pan-African fintech accelerated its pivot from airtime credit toward microfinance.

The company disclosed the figures in a trading update this week, one year after its November 2025 debut on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange valued it at R23.5 billion ($1.4 billion). Chief executive Salvador Anglada says performance has beaten the guidance set at listing. "Our first-half results in September showed growth of close to 60%," he told TechCabal in an interview on Thursday.

Both growth and profitability, he added, are running above the projections issued at the IPO. That claim comes from the company itself; no independent audit figures accompany the trading update.

Where does the money come from?

Microfinance contributed $194 million in the first nine months of 2026 — about 72% of group revenue. Airtime credit, the product that built the business, contributed $75 million. Optasia now wants more than 80% of revenue to come from microfinance solutions.

"The company started with airtime credit, and we did a fantastic job in that space. However, airtime credit is essentially a convenience product," Anglada said. He argues the bigger prize is serving consumers and small businesses that traditional lenders skip.

The market gap is measurable. Only 7% of adults in sub-Saharan Africa borrowed from mobile money providers in 2024, yet those providers accounted for nearly 60% of all formal borrowing in the region, according to the World Bank's Global Findex Database 2025. Formal credit reaches a sliver of the population; informal lenders fill the rest.

"Microfinance services represent a much broader opportunity. They reveal the extent of the demand among people who have never had access to financial services," Anglada said.

How does Optasia underwrite borrowers without payslips?

The company uses artificial intelligence and alternative data to score customers who lack formal credit histories. Traditional lenders rely on payslips, credit records and property ownership — requirements that exclude people with irregular incomes who may still repay.

"What we do is identify what we call the signals of the market. These are signals that exist but are not necessarily formalised. We capture them through data and use them to develop features and identify patterns relating to individuals," Anglada said.

He says the company has developed more than 100,000 features per person, selecting combinations to build a behavioural and risk profile of each customer. The stated goal is not merely approving loans, but sizing them: how much a borrower can take without defaulting and realistically repay.

Whether algorithmic scoring at that scale prevents over-indebtedness remains the open question — one the company's own expansion raises.

Which markets are growing?

Optasia began by letting mobile subscribers take airtime advances when they could not top up their phones. Its platform has since evolved into a digital financial services business that lets telecom operators, banks and other partners distribute credit.

Anglada identifies Pakistan as one of its strongest markets outside Africa. Ghana, Uganda, Zambia and other West African markets are also recording increased demand.

Ambitions now extend beyond consumer loans into merchant financing and working capital for small businesses. "Many small businesses cannot access financial services or loans because they lack the formal structures and documentation traditional lenders require," Anglada said. "We are building products to address these gaps."

He does not specify what share of revenue merchant financing currently contributes.

What has listing changed?

Operating under public-market scrutiny has reshaped how Optasia runs itself. Anglada said the company has strengthened its regulatory and compliance functions, introduced board committees, and expanded its investor relations capabilities.

The stakes around responsible lending are real. Wider access to credit across the continent raises questions about affordability and over-indebtedness — concerns the company acknowledges but has not quantified.

The takeaway in plain words: Optasia is growing fast and beating its own targets, but its next test is proving that AI-driven microfinance scales responsibly, not just rapidly.