dLocal acquired selected AZA Finance assets for $23.7 million, ending a drawn-out deal that began as a plan to buy the Kenya-based cross-border payments company.
The Uruguayan fintech bought 3 assets on February 27: Mint Code Solutions S.A., a Cameroonian payments entity with a local payment licence; intellectual property linked to NeWurth S.A., the company behind the AZA Finance brand; and customer relationships across AZA Finance's African payments business. The purchase was settled through the cancellation of debt AZA owed to dLocal, not through a cash payment.
dLocal had first announced plans to acquire AZA Finance in June 2025. Bloomberg reported at the time that AZA had been valued at about $150 million in a 2024 funding round. But the transaction changed after regulatory delays and a third-party complaint forced dLocal to restructure the deal around the assets it considered most important.
The largest part of the purchase price was AZA's customer relationships, valued at $14.2 million. Goodwill accounted for $6.6 million, while intellectual property was valued at $2.05 million and the Mint Code payment licence at $120,000. dLocal said the acquired business did not make a material contribution to Q1 2026 revenue or gross profit.
The deal strengthens dLocal's position in Cameroon and Francophone Central Africa, where licences, treasury operations and regulatory relationships can take years to build. Africa and Asia accounted for about 29% of dLocal's gross profit in Q1 2026, with the region growing 16% quarter-on-quarter.
Key Takeaways
dLocal's AZA deal shows how difficult it is to buy or build African payments infrastructure. The final transaction was not mainly about software or a licence. Customer relationships and goodwill made up most of the value, showing that market access, trust and operating networks were the real assets. That matters because African payments are fragmented by country, regulator, bank partner, mobile money system, currency control and treasury rule. A global payments company can connect merchants through 1 API, but behind that API it still needs local entities, licences, settlement accounts, compliance teams and relationships. Cameroon is useful because it gives dLocal a stronger base in Francophone Central Africa, a region that is harder for foreign firms to enter than larger markets such as Nigeria or South Africa. The deal also shows that headline valuations can fall when regulatory risk, debt and operating pressure enter the picture. For dLocal, the acquisition is strategic, not financial for now. Its value will depend on whether the company can convert AZA's relationships into more payment volume across African markets.
Copyright 2026 Daba Finance. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
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