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The Series C round came a year after it closed a $35 million Series B and $20 million Series A in 2018. In total, Flutterwave has raised $475 million and is the only African startup to have secured more than $ 400 million in funding. It was founded by Olugbenga Agboola and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji in 2016 as a Nigerian and U.S.-based payments company with offices in Lagos and San Francisco. Flutterwave helps businesses build customizable payments applications through its Application programming interface. With this investment, Flutterwave has become the highest valued African startup. It is also proof that Africans have talents, can foster innovation, and that young people in Africa can inspire the world. It is also a huge endorsement that will increase the growth of the business, innovation, and technology landscape in Africa. Since its inception, the startup has been on a mission to create endless possibilities for customers and businesses in Africa and the emerging markets. Flutterwave launched a range of new products such as Flutterwave Market for merchants to sell their goods via an online marketplace and recently, Send, a remittance service that permits customers to seamlessly send money to recipients to and from Africa in 2021. Flutterwave has also partnered with leading global and pan-African technology and telecommunication companies such as PayPal, MTN, Airtel Africa to propel financial inclusion on the continent and create endless possibilities for customers who can develop customizable payment applications through its application programming interface. The round was led by B Capital Group, and with participation from Alta Park Capital, Whale Rock Capital, Lux Capital, among others. Former investors that participated in previous rounds also followed this round, including, Glynn Capital, Avenir Growth, Tiger Global, Green Visor Capital, Salesforce Ventures. The Series D fundraise comes as a result of their remarkable performance of five years in which Flutterwave has processed over 200M transactions worth over $16 billion to date 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 world.
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The chief executive officer of Flutterwave said,
“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. We are grateful to them and to all the other Central Banks in all the countries where we operate. We set out to build a platform that simplifies payments for everyone and today, our solutions are used across the globe to connect Africans to the world and the world to Africans. We are delighted that investors believe in us and our story and are committing their resources to this belief. This latest funding demonstrates the conviction of some of the world’s leading investors in both our business model, team, and the Africa 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.”This latest fundraising has more than tripled Flutterwaves’ valuation since its last funding round in March 2021 when it became one of Africa’s fastest-growing Unicorns. The new funds will drive Flutterwave’s enterprising plan for expansion to speed the acquisition of customers in existing markets and growth through mergers and acquisitions. They also plan to create complementary products while encouraging innovations in their products and services development. The Company will share more details about its plans for the year during the Flutterwave 3.0 event. The virtual event is slated for 18th February 2022. Featured Image Source: Flutterwave
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