It’s official: Flutterwave is Nigeria’s largest financial institution. Yes, it is worth at least a billion dollars more than any bank in Nigeria. The last possible $3 billion sums came up just this weekend in Tekedia as I addressed innovation and developing a new base of market competitiveness.
Yes, Flutterwave reported this morning that it had raised $250 million in Series D fundraising led by B Capital Group, valuing the company at over $3 billion. “Your continent salutes you…,” I said on WhatsApp to CEO Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola. When great entrepreneurs emerge, nations thrive. Thank you for helping to transform your country and continent.”
Flutterwave has spent the last five years on a quest to provide customers and businesses in Africa and emerging countries with limitless possibilities. To date, the firm has supported over 900,000 businesses in 34 African nations, processing over 200 million transactions totalling over $16 billion. Flutterwave plans to use the Series D capital to accelerate client acquisition and expansion through mergers and acquisitions, as well as create supplementary technologies.
The next stop will be New York, where the bell will be rung next year. Because 9 additional unicorns are expected to join Africa by December 2023, this form of ascension will become more regular. Yes, Africa’s economy will take decades to digitalize.
Press Release
Flutterwave, a global technology firm, said today that it has secured $250 million in Series D investment, valuing the business at over $3 billion, as it continues to redefine the way Africans transact on the continent and throughout the world.
With this investment, Flutterwave has become the most valuable African start-up. It is a testament to Africa’s brilliance, inventiveness, and young people who inspire others. It’s also a big vote of confidence in Africa’s commercial, innovation, and technological scene.
Some of the world’s most prestigious investors have joined Flutterwave’s latest supporters, including B Capital Group, Alta Park Capital, Whale Rock Capital, and Lux Capital, among others. Glynn Capital, Avenir Growth, Tiger Global, Green Visor Capital, and Salesforce Ventures, among others, were among the existing investors that participated in prior rounds.
The fresh funding will support Flutterwave’s ambitious expansion plan, which includes accelerating client acquisition in existing areas, expanding through M&A, developing complementary products, and fostering new product and service improvements. During the Flutterwave 3.0 event, the company will provide further information.
Since its beginning in 2016, the Flutterwave team has been on a mission to provide customers and companies in Africa and emerging countries with limitless possibilities. The Series D round follows an incredible five-year run in which Flutterwave has completed over 200 million transactions totalling over $16 billion across 34 African nations. It also comes after a year of fast expansion for the company, which now services over 900,000 firms worldwide.
Flutterwave debuted a number of new products in 2021, including Flutterwave Market, which allows merchants to sell their items on an online marketplace, and Transfer, a remittance service that allows users to send money to receivers in and out of Africa. Flutterwave has also teamed with prominent global and pan-African technology and telecommunications firms like PayPal, MTN, and Airtel Africa to advance financial inclusion across the continent and provide clients with limitless possibilities through its APIs.
“Our narrative is one of resilience and hard effort,” stated Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave. Our success has been fueled by the support of our customers, partners, banks, the general public, regulators, and, most importantly, our employees. Under the leadership of Dr Godwin Emefiele, the Central Bank of Nigeria created the foundation for Nigeria’s revolutionary Payment System, provided the platform for innovation in this field, and has continued to implement laws that have allowed us to grow and prosper. We owe them, as well as all the other Central Banks in the nations where we do business, our gratitude.
We set out to create a platform that makes payments easier for everyone, and our solutions are now utilized all over the world to link Africans to the rest of the world and the rest of the world to Africans. We are ecstatic that investors believe in us and our narrative and are willing to put their money behind it. This current round of investment illustrates the belief of some of the world’s most prestigious investors in both our company concept and team, as well as the African technology sector. It provides Flutterwave with the much-needed assistance it requires to carry out our goals to create the finest possible experience for our merchants and customers all over the world.”
Matt Levinson, Partner at B Capital said, “At B Capital, we seek to back generational companies with broad platform potential. Flutterwave has a unique opportunity to accomplish this as the dominant payments infrastructure provider across Africa. 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. Flutterwave may ultimately build one of the most consequential fintech businesses in the world, enabling hundreds of thousands of merchants to transact online and connect Africa to the global economy.”
David Glynn, the Managing Partner of Glynn Capital, said: “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. We look forward to supporting the company as it addresses its significant growth opportunity in the years ahead.”
Since its previous investment round in March of last year, when it became one of Africa’s fastest-growing unicorns, Flutterwave’s valuation has more than tripled.
