Five years after backing cross-border payments startup Leatherback, Nigerian financial services group Zedcrest has decided it no longer wants to be just an investor. It now owns the company.

What happened? On Monday, Zedcrest acquired Leatherback for an undisclosed amount, noting that it plans to revive the startup’s cross-border payments ambitions, saying the opportunity remains “significantly underpenetrated.” According to the company, Leatherback will continue to operate independently under its own brand, team, and product suite, separating it from Zedcrest’s deeper traditional finance and wealth management focus.

Why did Zedcrest acquire Leatherback? Some investors wait for exits; others actively engineer them. Like in the case of OmniRetail and Traction Apps in 2024, investors saw an opportunity to bring payments infrastructure, licences, merchant relationships, and distribution under one roof instead of waiting for another buyer. With Leatherback, Zedcrest appears to have reached a similar conclusion: the fintech was becoming more valuable as part of its broader financial services ecosystem than as a standalone portfolio investment. The acquisition gives Zedcrest something it didn’t fully own before: infrastructure for collecting, holding, converting, and moving money across borders.

It makes a lot of sense when you consider how Zedcrest has set up its businesses. The group lends money (through Zedvance Finance), manages investments, and advises businesses on raising capital. Now, it also owns the technology that lets those businesses collect, hold, convert, and send money across borders. That gives Zedcrest control over the customer experience and another revenue stream every time money moves.

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