Today, Africa’s leading payments technology company, Flutterwave announced that it has secured USD $170 million. The Series C round was led by growth-equity firms Avenir Growth Capital (“Avenir”) and Tiger Global Management LLC (“Tiger Global”) with participation from other international investors. The new and existing investors who participated in the successful round include DST Global, Early Capital Berrywood, Green Visor Capital, Greycroft Capital, Insight Partners, Salesforce Ventures, Tiger Management, Worldpay FIS, and 9yards Capital.
Launched in 2016 by Olugbenga Agboola as a Nigerian and America-based payments company with offices in Lagos and San Francisco, Flutterwave helps businesses build customizable payments applications through its APIs. The African fintech company is considered to be valued at more than USD $1 billion and the fundraise bringing the total investment in Flutterwave to USD $225 million.
Flutterwave, a company with an active presence in 11 African countries, also helps businesses outside Africa to expand their operations on the continent. Some of the company’s clientele of international companies include Booking.com, Flywire, and Uber.
Last year, the company introduced the Flutterwave Stores for merchants during pandemic-induced lockdowns. The product, which went live across 15 African countries, helps over 20,000 merchants to create storefronts and sell their products online.
In a statement on Flutterwave’s website, the company says the fundraise will allow it to become a leading global payments company capable of empowering SMEs and multinational brands by connecting the highly fragmented African digital payments landscape. “Flutterwave will invest the new capital to accelerate customer acquisition in existing and international markets, as well as develop complementary and innovative products such as the newly launched Flutterwave Mobile, an app to help accelerate ecommerce growth as a result of the success of the Flutterwave Stores.”
According to the Founder and CEO of Flutterwave, Olugbenga Agboola, “When Flutterwave was founded in 2016, the payments landscape in Africa was highly fragmented so the goal was to build a pan-African platform that simplified payments for everyone. However our successes would not be possible without (1) Our amazing team of 300+ employees that work tirelessly to achieve our goals (2) The trust and support we have received from our investors and customers and (3) Regulatory bodies like the Central Bank of Nigeria which – under the leadership of the current Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele – has remained at the forefront of the significant efforts that are currently being made by African governments to create the enabling environment for technology, innovation and financial inclusion. This humbling support has created the backbone upon which companies like Flutterwave have been able to thrive.”
