Optasia, the Johannesburg-listed fintech that began by advancing airtime, said on 5 November 2026 that revenue for the nine months to 30 September was about US$270 million, up 45% on the same period of 2025. The figures are preliminary management accounts that the company’s external auditors have not reviewed.
Microfinance, which the company calls Micro-Financing Solutions (MFS), contributed about $194 million, up 67%, and made up about 72% of group revenue. Airtime Credit Solutions (ACS) contributed about $75 million, up 8%. The combined take rate, meaning revenue as a share of value distributed, rose to 5.3% from 4.9%. Value distributed through the platform rose about 34% to $5.1 billion.
The company said its targets for the 2026 financial year “remain unchanged.” In September it had raised them to 30% to 40% growth across revenue, adjusted EBITDA and normalised net income.
Background
Optasia was founded in 2012 and has its head office in Dubai, with an office in Johannesburg. It listed on the JSE on 4 November 2025 at R19 a share, which its listing release said implied a market capitalisation of R23.5 billion. It says it operates in 38 countries. Salvador Anglada is its chief executive. The trading update is dated 3 November and was published on the JSE’s SENS service at 07:05 South African time on 5 November.
The mix is shifting faster than the total
The company’s half-year and nine-month figures can be compared directly:
| Period | Group revenue | MFS revenue | ACS revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| H1 2026, reviewed (to 30 June) | $185.3m, +58% | $133.0m, +84% | $51.1m, +17% |
| 9M 2026, unaudited (to 30 September) | about $270m, +45% | about $194m, +67% | about $75m, +8% |
| Implied Q3 2026, our arithmetic | about $85m, roughly +23% | about $61m, roughly +40% | about $24m, lower than Q3 2025 |
The quarterly column is our own subtraction from rounded figures, and the company did not publish quarterly numbers. Our estimate of third-quarter 2025 revenue, about $69 million, uses the 45% growth rate and the first-half 2025 base. Rounding in the company’s figures means each quarterly estimate could be a few percentage points out.
On that arithmetic, growth slowed sharply in the third quarter. Microfinance growth fell from 84% in the first half to roughly 40%, and airtime credit appears to have declined. The company had already signalled a slower second half. Its September results said full-year 2026 reported growth would be “weighted towards the first half”, with H2 growth “expected to be more measured”. It gave three reasons: the Nigeria run-rate, a shift in the management of overdraft services in Uganda and Ghana to a partner, and a smaller foreign-exchange benefit.
Nigeria
Airtime credit services in Nigeria were suspended in April 2026 after new consumer-lending rules from the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. The September results said Nigeria was about 14% of group revenue in 2025 and under 4% in the second quarter of 2026. All operator partners were live again by 24 June, under a multi-provider structure in which customer allocation depends on performance. The trading update says the business has “continued to stabilise” under that structure.
Concentration and new partners
Ghana accounted for about 31.5% of group revenue in the first half, and the three largest markets for about 57%. The trading update reports three new deployments since the half-year: merchant loans in Uganda, and two banking deployments with FirstRand, one for ACS and one for MFS. FirstRand bought a 20.1% stake before the listing, according to the listing release, and raised it to 26.1% during the first half, according to the September results.
Optasia also completed its acquisition of Finergi, a utility-credit business, in April 2026. The company describes Finergi as at an early stage, with pre-commercial pilots in Namibia, Uganda and Lesotho. We have not verified the acquisition price.
What the update does not show
The trading update does not include profit, cash flow or segment margins. The September results were reviewed by the company’s auditors, Ernst & Young’s Abu Dhabi branch. The trading update was not. The company says the first-half foreign-exchange benefit has “largely eased”.
The ambition for microfinance to exceed 80% of revenue appears in TechCabal’s 6 November article, which reports that Optasia “now wants more than 80%” of its revenue to come from microfinance. It is not in the JSE announcement and describes a goal, not the current mix.
Our figures are arithmetic from rounded numbers, so treat the quarterly estimates as approximate. The company’s guidance and the trading update are its own statements and have not been independently verified.
Sources
- Optasia Limited, voluntary trading update for the period ended 30 September 2026 (JSE SENS, 5 November 2026, via Moneyweb)
- Optasia, reviewed interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2026 (results booklet)
- Optasia, reviewed interim results SENS announcement (14 September 2026)
- Optasia, IPO and JSE listing press release (4 November 2025)
- TechCabal, 'Optasia is betting bigger on microfinance a year after listing' (6 November 2026)
TopicsOptasia Microfinance JSE
