In May 2025, a French commercial court ordered the compulsory liquidation of Bizao SAS, the Paris-based holding company behind one of Francophone Africa’s fastest-growing payment infrastructure startups. The ruling, issued by the Paris Economic Activities Court on May 27 and published in the Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales (BODACC) on June 12, marks a dramatic collapse for a company once billed as a linchpin in Africa’s digital payments revolution.

The court appointed Valérie Leloup-Thomas of Selafa MJA as liquidator, formally ending Bizao SAS’s six-year run. While its African subsidiaries remain operational — at least for now — the dissolution of the French parent company raises serious questions about investor exposure, the status of client contracts, and whether Africa’s cross-border fintech ambitions can survive the weight of economic and regulatory complexity.

From High Hopes to Financial Ruin

Founded in 2019 by Aurélien Duval-Delort, a former Orange executive, Bizao set out to streamline business-to-business (B2B) payments across Africa. Its pitch was clear: integrate mobile money, card payments, and bank transfers into a unified platform, easing the burden for companies grappling with fragmented and unstandardised payment infrastructure.

Bizao quickly gained ground in Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Cameroon, Tunisia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. By 2022, it had inked deals with major telcos and financial institutions, offering interoperability where few had succeeded. The company raised an €8 million Series A round led by AfricInvest’s Financial Inclusion Vehicle, with participation from Seedstars Africa Ventures and Adelie. Duval-Delort claimed that Bizao was processing over 300 million payment requests per month and had achieved a 20x annual transaction growth.

But by early 2025, the company was insolvent. In March, Bizao SAS entered redressement judiciaire (court-supervised receivership), a last-ditch attempt to restructure. When a buyer failed to materialise by April 30, the court moved to full liquidation.

Bizao’s website has been taken down. Its Paris headquarters on Rue Saint-Sabin stands shuttered.

What Went Wrong?

Unsustainable Burn Rate

Financial disclosures from its French registry paint a picture of a company with strong top-line growth, but persistent losses. Despite impressive revenue growth — €6.3 million in 2020 (over a 21-month period), €6.85 million in 2021 — Bizao was never profitable. In 2020 alone, it posted an operating loss of €694,000 against liabilities of €3.6 million and equity of just €393,000. Revenues declined slightly in 2022 (€5.4 million) and 2023 (€5.3 million), but the bigger issue was structural: high operating costs, low margins, and no clear path to breakeven.

Overextension in Africa

Operating across eight African countries brought its own challenges. Navigating multiple regulatory regimes, foreign exchange volatility, and divergent telecom standards is expensive and logistically complex. Unlike consumer fintechs, Bizao’s B2B infrastructure model required deep integration with telcos and banks — a capital-intensive undertaking that is difficult to scale profitably.

Failed Restructuring and No Buyers

Following its entry into receivership, the Paris court opened a bidding process in April 2025 to attract acquirers. None emerged. Industry insiders say Bizao’s infrastructure-heavy model — essentially the digital plumbing of African finance — offered limited short-term upside and few suitors willing to absorb its liabilities.

By May 27, the court ruled that liquidation was the only remaining option.

What Happens Next?

1. African Subsidiaries in Limbo

While CEO Duval-Delort insisted in March that the receivership “was voluntary” and “limited to the French entity,” the liquidation of Bizao SAS casts a long shadow. It is unclear how much of the core technology, client contracts, and intellectual property were retained by the French company.

With the Paris parent gone, several critical questions remain:

• Will creditors seek to enforce claims against the African subsidiaries?
• Who now owns the tech stack and ongoing service obligations?
• Are Bizao’s investors — AfricInvest, Seedstars, Adelie — plotting a salvage strategy, or preparing to write off their losses?

2. A Warning for African Fintech?

Bizao’s collapse is part of a growing list of fintech flameouts. Kenya’s Lipa Later entered administration earlier this year. Even infrastructure-focused players in developed markets like SaltPay have faced significant pressure.

For Africa’s fintech scene, the implications are sharp:

• Growth ≠ Profitability: B2B infrastructure fintechs must balance expansion with sustainable unit economics. Scale alone won’t save them.
• Regulatory Friction: Operating across jurisdictions means higher legal, compliance, and licensing costs — particularly for payments companies.
• VC Reality Check: As capital tightens, investors are demanding clearer paths to profitability, especially for startups building behind-the-scenes infrastructure. This was obviously fatal to the case of Bizao. 

Bizao’s downfall is a sobering reminder that ambition and vision are not enough to survive in the unforgiving terrain of African fintech. The company tried to unify payments in a continent of contradictions — where telecoms dominate finance, regulation is patchy, and operational costs soar.

It got close. But not close enough.

Without the Paris headquarters, investor backing, or legal structure that once supported them, the future of its African subsidiaries remains uncertain. This was fatal for Kenya’s Copia which did not survive after its parent company Copia Global was first liquidated. Already Bizao’s website has become inactive since the liquidation. As the liquidator begins the long process of winding down the French entity, the rest of the industry is left to reckon with a fundamental question:

Can cross-border fintech infrastructure be built sustainably in Africa? Or will Bizao be the first of many to find out the hard way?

Bizao Snapshot

• Founded: 2019, Paris
• Founder: Aurélien Duval-Delort
• Legal Form: SAS (Société par Actions Simplifiée)
• Headquarters: 66 Rue Saint-Sabin, 75011 Paris
• SIREN: 850 323 635
• Employees (2021): 9
• Subsidiaries: 8 across Francophone Africa
• Status: Liquidated (as of May 27, 2025)