Fintech services across African have recently been attracting lots of foreign investors, and opening opportunities for start-ups in other fields to be recognized.
Flutterwave is one of this Fintech companies, and it has just hit a new milestones with its Series C investment round.
Flutterwave, which is an African-focused Fintech service provider, has raised US$170m in its series C investment round.
The latest investment round has tossed Flutterwave’s valuation across the billion dollar mark, making it the second African Fintech companies to achieve such milestone.
Flutterwave’s Series C investment round was led by New York-based private investment firm Avenir Growth Capital, as well as US-based hedge fund and investment firm – Tiger Global.
New and existing investors like DST Global, Early Capital Berrywood, Green Visor Capital, Greycroft Capital, Insight Ventures, PayPal, Salesforce Ventures, Tiger Management, and Worldpay FIS 9yards Capital, also participated in the investment round.
Flutterwave, which was launched in 2016, as a Nigerian and US company, helps business create tailored payment application via its API.
While commenting on the round of investment, Flutterwave said that the new funding will be used to expand its customer base in existing and international markets, and for developing new fintech products.
The CEO of the company, Olugbenga Agboola, said that the company has experienced a 100% growth in revenue last year, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 226% from 2018.
Mr Olugbenga Agboola, who is also knows as GB, confirms to Reuters that the company will be looking at either listing on the New York Stock Exchange, or perform a dual listing in the US and Nigeria.
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Against popular sentiments about Nigeria’s apex bank’s policies, and its negative effects on fintech and start-ups, GB makes bold to say that Flutterwave has thrived due to the regulations churned out by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“Flutterwave, for instance, launched when the governor just came in. We got our license and scaled our business because of a favourable regime that allowed it to be possible. There are so many trailblazing innovations that we don’t talk about a lot about Nigeria, like the BVN and the NIP system. Nigeria has consistently been at the forefront of payments innovation for over a decade, and it was all possible because of the forward-looking CBN policies,” he said.
The Fintech company, in 2018, closed a US$20m Series A investment round. Flutterwave also close its series B investment round, last year, with US$35m.
In summary, Flutterwave has raised about US$225m, since it started operations, and is one of the few African startups to have secured more than $200m in funding.
Flutterwave confirms that over 290,000 businesses use its platform to carry out payments.
The company also says that it has processed over 140 million transactions, totaling about US$9 billion.
Flutterwave said it processes funds in 150 currencies, and is trusted by global brands like Facebook, booking.com, Uber, and others.