There are not many technology companies from Africa and the continent is not known for manufacturing. However, there are some decent African financial technology companies that are doing so well. According to recent reports, a fintech startup from Nigeria, Flutterwave, is now the biggest and most valuable fintech startup in Africa. This is coming after the company secured $250 million in Series D funding. Two Nigerians (Olugbenga Agboola, and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji) founded Flutterwave with its headquarter in San Francisco, United States. The company provides a plethora of services including card issuing and management, flexible loans, and so on.
Due to faster internet speeds and higher smartphone usage in Africa, the African payments market is booming. Flutterwave is leveraging on this boom to boost its business. Back in March 2021, the company raised $170 million in a Series C round led by Tiger Global and Avenir. This took the valuation of the company to $1 billion. The company claims that the deal will not only increase growth via mergers and acquisitions, it will also boost customer acquisition in existing markets. Furthermore, it will facilitate product development.
Flutterwave serve almost a billion businesses around the world
Since its inception back in 2016, Flutterwave has processed over $16 billion worth of transactions in over 200 million deals. The company is currently serving no less than 900,000 businesses globally.
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Co-founder of Flutterwave, Agboola said
“Our story is that of resilience and hard work. Our growth so far is due to the support of our customers, our partners, the banks, the public, the regulators, and importantly our people…We set out to build a platform that simplifies payments for everyone and today, our solutions are used across the globe to connect Africans to the world and the world to Africans…We are delighted that investors believe in us and our story and are committing their resources to this belief”.
Matt Levinson, Partner at B Capital said,
“At B Capital, we seek to back generational companies with broad platform potential…In addition to their emergence as the leading enterprise payments processor for the continent, Flutterwave is innovating at breakneck speed with novel fintech solutions for large corporates, SMEs, and consumers. I’ve had the pleasure of backing this world-class team since 2017 and couldn’t be more thrilled that B Capital is leading their Series D”.
Levinson also believes that Flutterwave has the ability to become the dominant payment platform across Africa.
David Glynn, Managing Partner of Glynn Capital adds,
“We believe the digitization of payments globally is one of the largest and most important trends in technology…Having been investors in Flutterwave since 2017, we have had a front-row seat in seeing Flutterwave establish itself as a leading payments company in Africa as it drives the adoption of seamless digital payments experiences for merchants and consumers alike.”
