New funding gives Flutterwave $3bn value

Flutterwave, a leading payment technology company, has raised another $250-million in funding, valuing the company at over $3-billion as the brand continues to transform the way Africans transact. It is now the highest-valued African startup.

“It is a validation of African talent, innovation and its young inspiring people.,” the company said in its announcement of the funding. “It is also a huge endorsement in the growth of the business, innovation and technology landscape in Africa.”

Flutterwave’s latest backers include some of the world’s most respected investors, led by B Capital Group, and with participation from Alta Park Capital, Whale Rock Capital, Lux Capital, among other. Several existing investors who also participated in previous rounds followed this round, including Glynn Capital, Avenir Growth, Tiger Global, Green Visor Capital and Salesforce Ventures.

The new funds will drive Flutterwave’s expansion plan to accelerate customer acquisition in existing markets and growth through acquisitions, and develop complementary products.  The Company will share more details during the Flutterwave 3.0 event on18 February 2022 (register here). 

The Series D fundraise comes on the back of an impressive run of five years since its founding in 2016. Flutterwave has processed over 200-million transactions worth over $16-billion across 34 countries in Africa. It also follows a year of rapid growth for the brand, which now serves over 900,000 businesses across the globe. 

In 2021, Flutterwave launched a range of new products, including Flutterwave Market for merchants to sell their goods via an online marketplace and, most recently, Send, a remittance service that allows money to be sent to recipients to and from Africa. Flutterwave has also partnered with leading global and pan-African technology and telecommunication companies like PayPal, MTN, and Airtel Africa to drive financial inclusion on the continent.

Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, founder and CEO of Flutterwave, says: “Our story is that 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. 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.”

Matt Levinson, partner at B Capital says: “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. 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.”

This latest fundraising has seen Flutterwave’s valuation more than triple since its last funding round in March last year, when it became one of Africa’s fastest-growing Unicorn.