On February 16, 2022, Flutterwave, Nigeria’s leading fintech company, announced that it had raised $250 million in Series D funding, increasing the company valuation to over $3 billion, which is three times the $1 billion it was previously valued. With this investment, Flutterwave has become the most valuable African start-up.
The Series D round recorded participation from some of the world’s most prestigious investors, including B Capital Group, Alta Park Capital, Whale Rock Capital, and Lux Capital. Glynn Capital, Avenir Growth, Tiger Global, Green Visor Capital, and Salesforce Ventures are existing investors who participated in earlier rounds.
Flutterwave has raised $475 million since its founding six years ago (it raised a $35 million Series B in 2020 and a $20 million Series A in 2018). Flutterwave was founded in 2016 by a team of ex-bankers, entrepreneurs, and engineers. Led by creator and CEO Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, it uses a single API to simplify cross-border financial transactions between small and large African firms. The company operates with the mission to make it easier for Africans to start global businesses that can accept and process payments from anywhere in the world.
The company announced that since 2016, it processed over 200M transactions worth over $16B to date across 34 countries in Africa and now serves over 900,000 businesses across the globe.
According to Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave, “Our story is that of resilience and hard work. Our growth so far is due to the support of our customers, partners, banks, the public, the regulators, and, importantly, our people. The Central Bank of Nigeria, under the leadership of Dr. Godwin Emefiele, laid the vision of a transformational Payment System in Nigeria, provided the framework for innovation in this space, and has continued to create regulations that have enabled us to grow and thrive. We are grateful to them and to all the other Central Banks in all the countries we operate.
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 commit their resources to this belief. This latest funding demonstrates the conviction of some of the world’s leading investors in both our business model, team, and the African technology market. It gives Flutterwave the much-needed support to deliver on our plans to provide the best experience for our merchants and customers worldwide.”
As part of its efforts to expand operations, Flutterwave debuted several new products in 2021, including Flutterwave Market, which allows merchants to sell their items on an online marketplace and Send. This remittance service will enable 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 such as PayPal, MTN, and Airtel Africa to advance financial inclusion across the continent and provide clients with limitless possibilities through its APIs.
Flutterwave plans to use the new capital to accelerate client acquisition in existing markets and growth through M&A, as well as develop complementary products and encourage breakthroughs in its product and service development.
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