Nigerian Fintech company, Flutterwave raises $250m in series D funding, triples valuation t0 $3bn

Pan-African payments technology company, Flutterwave, has raised $250 million in series D funding, which puts the company at a valuation of over $3 billion, as it continues to redefine the way Africans transact on the continent and around the world.

For many startups, becoming a unicorn appears to be a tall order that never materialises, but for Flutterwave, it only took five years to achieve unicorn status and another year to triple valuation. The recent fundraising round led by B Capital Group, a US private equity firm, got Flutterwave its reaffirmation as a top-level valuabe company. 

Some of the world’s most prestigious investors, including Altak Park Capital, Whake Rock Capital, and Lux Capital, amongst others, were the latest supporters in the funding round. 

Glynn Capital, Avenir Growth, Tiger Global, Green Visor Capital, and Salesforce Ventures, among others, were among the existing investors who participated in prior rounds.

Read also: Active internet users decline by 7.99% | MTN leads the numbers

Go deeper

With this investment, Flutterwave has become the most valuable African start-up, making it a testament to Africa’s brilliance, inventiveness, and inspiring youth. It’s also a big vote of confidence in Africa’s commercial, innovation, and technological scene.

Flutterwave has announced that the funds will be used to expand and acquire customers by seeking firms to buy or invest in, as well as developing technologies that will enhance the value of its payment processing company. 

The company had nurtured these intentions for a while, especially since its major raise last year, and had already put them into action by purchasing Disha, a floundering Nigerian ecommerce startup, and co-leading a $2.4 million investment in a Francophone Africa payment gateway. 

In another move on the chess board, the company recruited Nigerian singer, Wizkid, as a brand ambassador, exploiting his cult following to offer a remittance business. This was most likely its most eye-catching move.

The lucid future

Founded in 2016, as a Nigerian and U.S.-based payments startup, the company has since then amassed a name for itself, having an infrastructure to reach over 33 African countries.

Flutterwave has the potential to become one of the world’s most important fintech companies. However, the CEO, Olugbenga Agboola, believes the company has always aspired to be more than just a payment processor.

Flutterwave has broadened its view beyond financial services and has vertically created incorporation for Nigerians who want to register US and UK companies. 

Speaking on the new funding, CEO, Olugbenga Agboola, remarked that its resilience, hard work, and support from the public, in general, helped it set its feet on achieving feats similar to those it had enjoyed in the past. 

“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 around the world”.

Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave

Relentless marketing efforts

Fllutterwave has seen tremendous customer acquisition, thanks to its recent marketing commitments. It now serves over 900,000 businesses globally today, compared to 290,000 a year ago. 

Over the last couple of months, the company has displayed its commitment to its marketing efforts by being the official payments partner for Nigeria’s basketball team at the Tokyo Olympics. 

It made an even bigger bet by signing a multi-year sponsorship deal with the Basketball Africa League.

Speaking on the funding, Matt Levinson, partner at B Capital Group, believes that Flutterwave has the unique opportunity to become the dominant payments infrastructure provider across Africa and much more reason to be pleased with investing. 

“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. 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”.

Matt Levinson, partner at B Capital Group

Similarly, David Glynn, the managing partner of Glynn Capital, reaffirmed his company’s commitment and enthusiasm towards the goals of Flutterwave and said they are glad to be taking a front row seat. 

“We believe the digitisation 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 to 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”.