Flutterwave

Flutterwave, based in Nigeria and the USA, offers payment infrastructure for enterprises across the globe to enable cross-border transactions with Africa through payment applications created via a single API. Its solutions include a range of payment services such as checkout, card issuing and management (including “Flutterwave Barter”), stores, and invoices for websites and apps.

The platform enables transactions in over 150 currencies, and a range of payment methods, including cards, mobile wallets, and bank transfers. Flutterwave subsequently added Google Pay as a payment method for its merchants in Africa, in September 2022.

The company expanded its platform beyond payments in March 2022, by rolling out a series of new products, including BNPL, merchant lending, and business incorporation infrastructure.

As of February 2022, the company’s infrastructure catered to 34 African countries (excluding North Africa), including Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa. Subsequently, in February 2023, Flutterwave received its payment services provider (PSP) and payment facilitator licenses in Egypt and expanded its operations in North Africa. The company also received the Switching and Processing License from the Central Bank of Nigeria in September 2022; however, in July 2022 Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) directed all financial institutions to cease doing business with Flutterwave stating the company is not licensed to operate in the country.

Flutterwave also entered into a five year strategic technology agreement with Microsoft in June 2023, to build its next-gen platform on Microsoft Azure cloud. This supports scaling the transactions processed through Flutterwave.

Key customers and partnerships

Flutterwave noted that its platform is used by over 900,000 businesses, including Uber, Bookings.com, and Facebook.

The company has expanded its operations and products through partnerships, including one with cross-border payment infrastructure company Currencycloud in September 2021, to accelerate the launch of its payment network in Europe and the US. During the year, it also partnered with ecommerce fraud prevention company Forter (in April), and connected African businesses with over 377 million PayPal users globally (in March). In June 2023, it chose open banking infrastructure provider Token to power Flutterwave’s “Pay by Bank” transfer capabilities.

In 2019, the company collaborated with Visa to launch “Flutterwave Barter” as well as with Alipay to offer digital payment between Africa and China.

Funding and financials

Flutterwave had processed over 200 million transactions worth over USD 16 billion from its 2016 inception through February 2022. The company noted that its revenue rose at a CAGR of 225% over 2018-20, and was supported by the pandemic-led heightened demand for online payments.

In February 2022, Flutterwave raised USD 250 million in Series D funding, at a USD 3 billion valuation. The company intends to utilize the funds to accelerate customer acquisition in its existing markets, enter into M&A deals, and for further product development including developing complementary products.