Bloc, a Nigerian full-service fintech and Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) infrastructure provider, has announced the purchase of Getwallets, a wallets-as-a-service provider that has just rebranded as payments orchestration business Orchestrate.

Bloc, founded in 2021, is a fintech infrastructure company that assists any company in offering fintech solutions to their customers by providing an extensive set of building blocks — infrastructure, licences, compliance, and capital — that allow them to increase their value to their stakeholders, whether they are customers, investors, or employees.

Read also African Mobility Fintech Moove Closes $20M New Funding From South Africa’s Absa

Orchestrate, formerly Getwallets, claims to be the quickest way to add new payment methods to fintech businesses, expand into new areas, and provide various payment options to African clients — all with little to no code. In 2021, the startup was also launched.

Bloc will be able to focus its primary product strategy on delivering seamless BaaS and banking services as a result of the strategic acquisition of Orchestrate, while Orchestrate will lead its financial infrastructure with its unique payments orchestration API. The acquisition is a cash and equity transaction, with Orchestrate remaining a separate corporation overseen by founder and CEO Jerry Enebeli.

Bloc has processed more than US$30 million in bill payments API alone in the last year, and it recently introduced its SuperAgency product, which allows licenced organisations to offer agency banking services. Its purchase of Orchestrate expands its ability to provide fintech infrastructure such as online payments, subscription management, BNPL payment infrastructure, virtual wallets, bill payments, and invoicing through its Fintech-as-a-Service API suite.

Read also African Fintech Zazuu Raises $2M For Its Cross-border Payment Marketplace

“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,” said Edmund Olotu, founder of Bloc.

“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.’’

Enebeli expressed his excitement about bringing Orchestrate’s technology and know-how to the 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,” he said.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert. 
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh