We flagged Optasia as a pivotal moment for SA's VC ecosystem when it listed. In our SA VC 2025 analysis, we noted that the $1.4 billion market cap IPO was the first major African tech listing since 2019, and that "one exit does not make a market, but it changes conversations in investment committees." These first results show what happens when the conversation turns into numbers.

The headline is 76% revenue growth, but the composition matters more than the percentage.

Micro Financing Solutions (MFS), Optasia's micro-lending product, grew 149% and now accounts for 63% of group revenue, up from 44.5% in 2024. This is a deliberate strategic shift. MFS overtook Airtime Credit Solutions (ACS) for the first time, confirming that Optasia is no longer primarily an airtime advance company. It's a micro-lender operating through mobile network operators and financial institutions across emerging markets.

The platform facilitated $5.5 billion in distributed value during the year, up 44%. The take rate (revenue as a percentage of distributed value) improved from 4.0% to 4.8%, reflecting the higher-margin MFS mix. Normalised net income, stripping out one-off IPO costs, rose 57% to $57.8 million.

On the balance sheet, the JSE listing raised approximately $75 million in primary capital, slashing net debt to EBITDA from 0.99x to 0.11x. The company ended the year with $94 million in cash. Adjusted free cash flow grew 41% to $44.9 million.

Total users reached 432 million, with MFS users exploding from 20 million to 105 million in a single year. Eight new deployments launched in 2025 across Cameroon, Ghana, Congo-Brazzaville, Liberia, Eswatini, and Malaysia.

The number that should get the most scrutiny is the default rate: 1.2% on $5.5 billion in distributed value. For context, Optasia assumes default risk on behalf of its distribution partners (MNOs and financial institutions) through financial guarantee contracts. The AI-driven credit engine makes real-time lending decisions across 38 countries, using alternative data from mobile network behaviour to score borrowers who have no traditional credit history.

A 1.2% default rate while growing MFS by 149% and expanding into eight new markets is a remarkable risk management outcome. The cover ratio (revenue to credit loss provisions) held above 4x, meaning Optasia earns over four dollars for every dollar it provisions for defaults. Net revenue after expected credit losses improved from 3.1% of distributed value in 2024 to 3.7% in 2025.

That said, the default rate did increase from 0.9% in 2024. Optasia frames this as expected, given the higher inherent risk profile of micro-lending versus airtime advances. The question is whether 1.2% represents a stable level or the beginning of a trend as MFS scales into less familiar markets.

One detail buried in the results deserves attention. Adjusted EBITDA margin dropped from 49.7% to 43.2%. Direct service costs increased 254% year-on-year. Operating expenses nearly doubled, driven by headcount growth, IPO-related costs, and the operational complexity of eight new market deployments.

Optasia argues this is an intentional trade-off: MFS has lower EBITDA margins than ACS but delivers higher absolute profit per unit of distribution. The metric they point to is adjusted EBITDA to distributed value, which improved from 2.0% to 2.1%. In other words, they're earning more per dollar, facilitated even though the margin percentage is lower. That logic holds for now, but it requires the MFS cost structure to show operating leverage as it scales. If direct service costs continue growing faster than revenue, the margin compression could become structural rather than transitional.

Alongside the results, Optasia announced the acquisition of Finergi Global FZCO, a technology company that embeds credit into prepaid electricity systems. Finergi holds patents in 24 countries. This is a strategic jump from mobile network rails into utility infrastructure, dramatically expanding the addressable market beyond telco.

The logic is straightforward: if you can offer credit through prepaid electricity the way you currently offer it through airtime top-ups, you access an entirely new category of everyday transactions. But it's unproven at Optasia's scale, and integrating a utility credit platform across multiple regulatory environments is a different engineering and compliance challenge from mobile lending.

Forward guidance points to "low to mid-twenties growth" across revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and net income. That's a significant deceleration from 76% revenue growth in 2025. Some of this year's growth was amplified by favourable currency movements (the Ghanaian cedi, Congolese franc, and South African rand all appreciated materially against the dollar) and the ramp-up of 2024 deployments that generated $87.5 million in their first full year. Guidance in the twenties likely reflects the normalised run rate once new market launches mature.

Michael Jordaan, the former FNB CEO who backed Angelhub Ventures (which became Hlayisani Capital), sits as Optasia's independent chairman. FirstRand, one of SA's Big Four banks, is a strategic shareholder. Standard Bank is the JSE sponsor. The SA fintech connections are deep and deliberate.

For the broader ecosystem, Optasia's results do something concrete: they give institutional investors a public, auditable data point that an African-born fintech can list on the JSE and deliver post-IPO growth that exceeds its own guidance. That matters for the next company considering a listing, and for the VCs (like HAVAIC and Hlayisani) whose investors need to believe that exits are possible.

The question we raised in our SA VC piece was whether the JSE has the analyst coverage, liquidity, and risk appetite to support a pipeline of tech listings. Optasia's first results won't answer that alone. But $265 million in revenue, 76% growth, and a 1.2% default rate on $5.5 billion in emerging market micro-lending is a strong opening argument.

This news first appeared in our 17 March ‘26 newsletter on CrabaRide long-distance ride-share trips.

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