Optasia, the fintech that listed on the JSE in November, has delivered a set of maiden annual results that comfortably exceed the guidance it gave investors at the time of its R23.5-billion listing.
Revenue jumped 76% to US$265.4-million for the year ended 31 December 2025, while normalised net income rose 57% to $57.8-million. The total value of credit facilitated through the platform climbed 44% to $5.5-billion.
The results mark a strong opening chapter for the company as a listed entity. Optasia raised R6.5-billion in its IPO in November, priced at the top of its range at R19/share, with the offering several times oversubscribed. FirstRand acquired a 20.1% stake in the business ahead of the listing.
CEO Salvador Anglada said 2025 represented a structural transition from a fast-growing private fintech into a scaled and publicly listed global platform.
“The listing enhances our visibility and credibility as a leading global fintech, provides access to primary capital to support acceleration and establishes a transparent market-based valuation framework to underpin long-term value creation,” he said.
The most significant shift in Optasia’s business mix was the emergence of micro-financing solutions as the dominant revenue driver. MFS revenue surged 149% year on year and now accounts for 63% of group revenue, overtaking airtime credit solutions for the first time.
AI algorithms
Airtime credit — the business on which Optasia was originally built — continues to grow, with revenue up 17.4%, but its share of the mix is declining as the higher-margin lending business scales faster. Optasia said airtime credit increasingly acts as a feeder into micro-lending, strengthening lifetime customer value.
The company, which uses proprietary AI algorithms to assess creditworthiness using unstructured data from mobile operators and wallet providers, said its take rate — the share of distributed value it captures as revenue — improved to 4.8% from 4%.
Total service users grew 43% to 432 million. Eight new deployments were launched during the year, with micro-financing expanding into Cameroon, Ghana and Congo-Brazzaville, and airtime credit into Liberia, Eswatini and Malaysia.
Read: FirstRand ploughs R4.7-billion into Optasia ahead of JSE listing
A key metric for investors in the lending business is credit quality. Optasia reported a default rate of 1.2%, up from 0.9% in 2024 but in line with expectations as the higher-yielding micro-lending book scaled. The company said it maintained a cover ratio — revenue to provisions for expected credit losses — of more than 4x.
Net revenue after credit losses rose to $200-million from $118-million, improving from 3.1% of distributed value to 3.7%.
Adjusted Ebitda — earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation — grew 52% to $114.5-million, though the margin compressed to 43.2% from 49.7% as the revenue mix shifted towards micro-lending, which carries longer invoicing and collection cycles.
Reported earnings were affected by one-off costs associated with the JSE listing, including capital transaction costs and management compensation. Excluding these, normalised earnings per share rose 48% to 4.64 US cents, while headline EPS grew 9% to 3.38 US cents.
The IPO capital raise of about $75-million materially strengthened the balance sheet. Net debt to adjusted Ebitda improved to 0.11x from 0.99x at the end of 2024.
Adjusted free cash flow rose 41% to $44.9-million, with conversion improving to 53% in the second half after stabilising working capital movements. Net working capital of $107.2-million at year-end was equivalent to 40.4% of revenue, in line with guidance.
Alongside the results, Optasia announced the acquisition of Finergi, a technology platform providing real-time credit embedded in prepaid electricity systems. The company described the deal as a natural extension of its embedded finance strategy beyond telecommunications.
Collaborative initiatives
Optasia said it has started 2026 with strong trading and expects to outperform the guidance provided at the time of its listing. Over the medium term, the company is targeting sustained growth in the low- to mid-20 across revenue, adjusted Ebitda and net income.
The group said it will progress collaborative initiatives with shareholder FirstRand Group and continue expanding across Africa and into Asia. — (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media
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