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Optasia is pushing to diversify beyond its traditional airtime lending business to boost earnings and diversify its revenue streams. CEO Salvador Anglada told Business Day the fintech group aims to make more than 80% of its money from a growing slate of microfinance offerings, including cash and loans for utilities bills. Optasia describes itself as “an AI-enabled fintech platform that provides microfinancing solutions and airtime credit solutions”. In essence, it offers microloans across various platforms. For instance, it is the company behind the airtime lending businesses of mobile operators Vodacom and MTN. By December 2025, airtime loans accounted for more than a third (37%) of the group’s revenue while microfinance, the fastest-growing segment, now comprises the lion’s share at 63%. The previous year was a different picture, with airtime credit accounting for 55% of the top line. With the new offerings scaling rapidly, Anglada anticipates that 80%-85% of Optasia’s business will eventually consist of credit services other than for airtime.“The reason for that is not because those services [airtime credit] aren’t growing, but because the others are growing very fast,” he said. In 2025, turnover for microfinance solutions surged by 149%, while airtime credit was up 17.4%. Growth in microfinance is expected to continue outpacing that of airtime credit. Anglada said products such as cash loans and “buy now, pay later” services have benefited from huge demand.Additional growth is expected from merchant credit for small and medium businesses, digital e-commerce credit, and virtual lines of credit similar to virtual credit cards.“Another very good example is to provide credit for utilities, so an advance to buy electricity vouchers. People want to prepay and load their meters to have electricity, but if they don’t have the cash at the time we can provide that,” he said. The group has primarily used its relationship with mobile operators and banks to distribute its products, though Anglada is considering other areas and to take advantage of growth in loyalty programmes. “We are also having conversations with other ecosystems. One example is loyalty programmes. We could use [that] information to provide loans to people that are loyal customers for specific consumer brands,” he said. Optasia also continues to expand its geographic footprint. Anglada said existing markets such as Pakistan, Indonesia and Ghana are performing well, and the group has started operations in Gabon and South Sudan.He sees long-term growth potential in markets where much of the population lack traditional bank accounts, specifically Ethiopia and Egypt.The group forecasts revenue growth of 50%-60% for the six months to June and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation growth of 40%-50%. Founded in December 2012, Optasia has developed a network of distribution partners, including mobile operators and financial institutions. It has access to more than 860-million mobile subscribers.Business Day
