Flutterwave, a Lagos and San Francisco-based financial payments startup, has announced it has raised $170m from leading investors, putting it at valuation of over $1 billion. And with this valuation, the company becomes Africa’s latest unicorn, after Jumia, Interswitch and Fawry.
“We look forward to increasing our investments across the continent and deepening the impact our platform has on lives and livelihoods as we take more businesses in Africa to the world, and at the same time continue to bring more of the world to Africa,” said founder Olugbenga Agboola.
Here Is What You Need To Know
The Series C funding round was led by the New York-based investment firm, Avenir Growth Capital and US hedge fund and investment firm Tiger Global. Also participating are existing investors, including DST Global, Early Capital Berrywood, Green Visor Capital, Greycroft Capital, Insight Ventures, PayPal, Salesforce Ventures, Tiger Management, WorldpayFIS 9yards Capital.
The latest funding comes a year after the startup raised $35 million in Series B round. It also closed $20 million Series A in 2018. This brings the startup’s total investment to $225 million.
With the funding, Flutterwave will work more on its customer acquisition in markets where it is currently operating. It also has plans to improve its current product offerings such as Barter, which now has over 500,000 users. The investment will also help bring about new product offerings, including Flutterwave Mobile, which hopes to turn merchants’ mobile devices into a point of sale, allowing them to accept payments and make sales.
Avenir Growth Capital’s latest investment in Flutterwave is its first in an African startup. Tiger Global has previously invested in Nigeria’s iROKOtv as well as in South Africa’s Takealot.
According to Jamie Reynolds of Avenir Growth Capital and Scott Shleifer of Tiger Global, investment in Flutterwave came as a way of assisting the startup on its quest to build a global and world-class payments company.
Read also: 12 Years After, Egypt’s Fintech Startup Fawry Is Now Worth Over $1 Billion
What Flutterwave Does
Launched in 2016, Flutterwave allows clients to tap its APIs and work with Flutterwave developers to customize payments applications. Existing customers include Uber, Booking.com and e-commerce company Jumia.
In 2019, Flutterwave processed 107 million transactions worth $5.4 billion, according to company data. The numbers have since increased to over 140 million transactions worth over $9 billion, according to Agboola.
Flutterwave’s platform has served the increased B2B business payment needs spurred by the decade of growth and reform that has occurred in Africa’s core economies.
A unicorn is a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer
Flutterwave $170m