Payments firm Flutterwave raises Sh28bn for acquisitions

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San Francisco-headquartered Flutterwave, an African-focused financial technology firm with a presence in Kenya, has raised $250 million (Sh28.41 billion) largely for funding mergers and acquisitions in the growing payments market on the continent.
The upstart fintech, founded in Lagos in 2016, says the successful series D fund drive signals growing interest in Africa’s payments market amid growing merchandise trade with the rest of the world.

San Francisco-headquartered Flutterwave, an African-focused financial technology firm with a presence in Kenya, has raised $250 million (Sh28.41 billion) largely for funding mergers and acquisitions in the growing payments market on the continent.

The upstart fintech, founded in Lagos in 2016, says the successful series D fund drive signals growing interest in Africa’s payments market amid growing merchandise trade with the rest of the world.

“The new funds will drive Flutterwave’s ambitious expansion plan to accelerate customer acquisition in existing markets and growth through mergers and acquisitions,” the company said in a statement.

The money will also be used to develop complementary products while encouraging new innovations in its products and services development, the firm added.

B Capital Group, a venture capital owned by Facebook’s co-founder Eduardo Saverin, is among the investors who have committed cash in the growth-hungry Flutterwave.

Other new participants included Boston-based hedge fund Whale Rock Capital Management, San Francisco-based investment firm Alta Park Capital and New York-based venture capital firm Lux Capital.

“This latest funding demonstrates the conviction of some of the world's leading investors in our business model, team and the Africa technology market,” Flutterwave’s founder and chief executive Olugbenga Agboola said in a statement.

“It gives Flutterwave the much-needed support to deliver on our plans to provide the best experience for our merchants and customers around the world.”

The latest funding round values Flutterwave at $3 billion (Sh340.9 billion), the fintech said, adding that it has processed upwards of 200 million transactions worth more than $16 billion (Sh1.82 trillion) across 34 countries in Africa.

Flutterwave Kenya country director and East Africa business head Elizaphan Mouko told the Business Daily in a February 2020 interview that Kenya was the fintech’s second largest market after Nigeria, and that it targeted deals with small and medium-sized enterprises.

The firm, which has partnership deals with other fintech platforms such as PayPal, MTN and Airtel Africa, says it serves more than 900,000 businesses worldwide, including Uber, Flywire and Booking.com.

“Flutterwave has a unique opportunity to accomplish this (potential) as the dominant payments’ infrastructure provider across Africa,” Matt Levinson, partner at B Capital, said in the statement.

“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.”