By Mark Kawalya
Flutterwave, a payments company with Nigerian roots, secured $250 million in Series D funding, which consequently gave it a valuation that surpassed the $3 billion mark. This effectively ushered the fintech into the prestigious position of becoming Africa’s most valuable startup.
Started by Olugbenga Agboola and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji in 2016, with its headquarters in San Francisco, United States, Flutterwave offers a host of financial services ranging from card issuance/management to affordable loans.
The firm finds itself in a booming African payments market, that is leveraging digital technology that runs on mobile phone infrastructure due to the ever-increasing number of phone users and improving internet speeds.
The latest capital injection was led by US-based B Capital Group, along with Whale Rock Capital and Alta Park Capital. Salesforce Ventures, Green Visor Capital and Glynn Capital, and all existing investors, also took part.
Flutterwave raised $170 million last year in a Series C round that was headlined by Tiger Global and Avenir, catapulting its valuation to $1 billion.
According to Flutterwave, the investment will play a critical role in customer acquisition in the firms’ existing markets and bolster growth by way of mergers and acquisitions as well as boosting product development.
Since its inception, the startup has handled more than 200 million transactions that have an estimated value of more than $16 billion, serving a customer base of more than 900,000 businesses globally.
“Our story is one 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, ” Mr. Agboola said in an online statement.
“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.”
Matt Levinson, one of the Partners at B Capital said, “At B Capital, we seek to back generational companies with broad platform potential.” He added that Flutterwave presents a unique opportunity to accomplish a feat as the dominant payment infrastructure service 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.” Levinson continued.
