Optasia reported strong growth in the first half of 2026, with revenue rising 58% to $185.3 million and adjusted EBITDA increasing 45% to $77.9m.
The financial-intelligence and technology-enabled credit-solutions group reported its first set of results since listing on the JSE in November.
Normalised net income increased 40% to $39.3m, while adjusted free cash flow rose 150% to $32.7m.
Chief executive officer Salvador Anglada said in an online presentation that the group had delivered growth “across all parameters”. He attributed the performance partly to Optasia’s diversification across 35 countries.
Anglada said the group had continued to expand despite weaker growth in Nigeria, where airtime-credit services were temporarily suspended by regulators through April
MFS drives growth
Microfinance solutions, or MFS, remained the group’s main growth driver. Revenue from the division increased 84% and accounted for 72% of group revenue, compared with 62% in the first half of 2025.
Ghana continued to scale strongly, while Pakistan, Indonesia and the Republic of the Congo also delivered strong results, the company said.
Three new deployments went live during the period, including in Gabon and South Sudan. A further 12 deployments were in the delivery phase, with more than eight targeted for launch during the second half of 2026. These included Ethiopia, Kenya and Mozambique, said Anglada.
“Asia remains an important part of our strategy, with the performance of Pakistan and Indonesia reinforcing the opportunity across the region,” Anglada said.
He said they had not experienced a material impact from geopolitical uncertainty in its markets. Anglada said the relatively short cycle between disbursement and collections enabled Optasia to respond quickly to changing conditions.
New products and partnerships
The acquisition of Finergi expanded Optasia’s offering into utility credit, creating a new growth vertical.
The group also launched its first merchant-lending proposition and is developing additional embedded-credit products. These initiatives are supported by greater product configurability and more advanced credit decisioning.
Optasia said growth was being supported by deeper customer penetration, broader eligibility, increased usage and additional products and limits where customer behaviour and portfolio performance justified expansion.
“Ghana demonstrates the opportunity to scale multiple propositions successfully within a single market, a model we are increasingly applying elsewhere,” Anglada said.
Optasia also expanded its distribution model by adding banking and utility ecosystems to its established mobile-operator and mobile-money channels.
FirstRand increased its shareholding in Optasia to 26.1%. The companies also continued developing their partnership, including the integration of Optasia’s decisioning capabilities into FNB Connect’s airtime-advance proposition and the development of a cash-advance proposition within the FNB wallet ecosystem.
Nigeria recovery
All operator partners in Nigeria were live again by 24 June 2026, after airtime-credit services were temporarily suspended through April by regulatory authorities, said Anglada.
Services were operating under a multi-provider structure, with customer allocation based on performance.
“FY2026 targets assume the current run-rate under this structure; further recovery represents upside,” Anglada said.
The group updated its full-year targets to growth of between 30% and 40% across revenue, adjusted EBITDA and normalised net income.
Excluding Nigeria, monthly active users increased 6.1% in Airtime Credit Solutions and 14.8% in MFS. Distributed value grew faster than the active-user base, which the company attributed to deeper penetration, increased usage and a higher-value product mix.
ACS revenue increased 16.6% year on year, despite the temporary suspension of airtime-credit services in Nigeria.
The three largest markets accounted for approximately 57% of group revenue during the first half. Ghana accounted for approximately 31.5%.
Cash generation
Net cash from operating activities increased to $25.2m from $13.3m in the first half of 2025.
As at June 30, 2026, net debt stood at $30.6m.
The company had cash of $76.3m, together with committed borrowing facilities, which it said provided capacity to fund working-capital requirements and continue investing in growth.
Anglada said Optasia had entered the second half of 2026 with strong revenue momentum, improving cash conversion, low leverage and a broader range of growth drivers.
Optasia’s share price was up 0.47% at R14.82 on the JSE on Monday morning.
Edward.west@nationalmg.co.za
THE NATIONAL