Somebody runs out of airtime at nine at night and wants a few rand advanced. The amount is tiny, the borrower has no payslip, and the call must be made in about a second, which is why banks leave it alone. Optasia, Dubai-based, listed in Johannesburg since November 2025 and chaired by former FNB boss Michael Jordaan, built the machinery that makes it. On Monday it reported revenue up 58% to $185.3 million for the six months to June.
The interesting part is what that revenue is now made of. Optasia started in airtime advances, the business it runs behind mobile operators, and is becoming a lender of small cash amounts instead. Microfinance revenue grew 84% and is now close to three quarters of the group total, from under two thirds a year ago. That is why revenue grew faster than the $3.5 billion advanced: microfinance takes a bigger cut of each dollar, 5.3 cents against 4.9.
Lending to shopkeepers, and to people buying electricity
Optasia spent the half putting its credit decisioning behind more than phone credit. Merchant lending launched in Ghana in May with about 800 shopkeepers; by July, after the period closed, more than 56,000 were on it, and Uganda has since followed. Those loans run bigger than an airtime advance and repeat on the trader's cycle.
Electricity is the newest one. Optasia agreed in March to buy Finergi, a Dubai company whose technology fronts a customer the money for a prepaid electricity token and takes it back on the next recharge, closing on 16 April for $30 million. Avi Lasarow, Finergi's chief executive, told an investor presentation it answers a problem prepaid meters created: people on small irregular incomes cannot always pay up front for power they need now. Pilots run in Namibia, Uganda and Lesotho, none commercial yet.
What FirstRand is getting for 26.1%
FirstRand bought in just before the listing and has since lifted its stake to 26.1%. Two products are live in South Africa: Optasia's decisioning sits behind FNB Connect's airtime advance, and a cash advance is being built inside the FNB wallet. FNB keeps the customer and lends the money; Optasia decides who gets it.
The market is not convinced yet. Optasia's shares have lost almost 30% this year and trade roughly a fifth below their listing price. Mothusi Phiri of Benguela Global Fund Managers told News24 the results were strong but the credit side was not: provisions for expected credit losses rose 71.3%, ahead of revenue, and the default rate crept from 1.1% to 1.3%. He called Ghana's roughly one-third share of first-half revenue a narrow base for a business valued on growth.
Management is guiding down from here: 30% to 40% growth for the full year in revenue, operating cash earnings and net income, against the 58% just delivered. Nigeria sits in that guidance at today's run rate, after rules suspended the service in April and every operator partner came back by 24 June. Anything better counts as upside rather than plan.
