Flutterwave is a Nigerian fintech company that provides a payment infrastructure for global merchants and payment service providers across the continent.
Formation
The company was founded in 2016 by a team of African finance and technology veterans from Standard Bank, PayPal, Google Wallet amongst others. Flutterwave has grown to become one of the fastest-growing payments companies in the world and is headquartered in San Francisco, California with operations in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, and seven other African countries.
Founders
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, – former CEO
Olugbenga Agboola – Current CEO
Adeleke Adekoya
What they do
Flutterwave is a gateway service provider that helps businesses accept payments from clients oversea. Flutterwave is not a bank so they don’t save your money, what they do is help you collect payments from your client and transfer them directly to your business bank account. With Flutterwave you can receive payments from different currencies.
How does Flutterwave Work?
Firstly, Flutterwave can be used to send and receive money. Flutterwave has a feature that allows merchants to collect payments from customers in any part of the world. That is, you can receive payment in different currencies.
- Create an account and complete the required registration: you’ve to be registered on Flutterwave before you can start using their service.
- Create a payment link: Once you open an account on Flutterwave, you then create a payment link that you can integrate with your site, and/or share with your customers or networks who want to pay for your service or make donations. You can also attach the payment link to your social media handles for people to see.
Flutterwave features/products
Flutterwave has so many features businesses can leverage to grow their business. Below are the various features available to businesses on Flutterwave
- Payment tool: This is designed to provide the best payment experience for your customers. You can easily receive money from anywhere in the world and even make transfers in single or bulk to other accounts. Another good thing about this is that you can receive payments in over 150 different currencies.
- E-commerce store and tools: This is an online space where business can list their product to boost online visibility. This includes creating a free online store, professional invoice, and payment links. It was created during the COVID-19 pandemic to enhance business growth.
- FaaS: fintech as a service Embed financial services into your products. Create and launch apps that enable your customers to hold funds in their wallets, pay bills, create virtual cards, and do so much more.
- Virtual Cards: Issue physical and virtual cards that work globally. You can create, launch, and manage your cards easily from anywhere.
- Capital: You get quick access to flexible loans to grow your business.
- Registration: Register and incorporate your business from anywhere.
Flutterwave Mission.
At Flutterwave, we are on a mission to build payment infrastructures to connect Africa to the global economy. We do this by building technology, tools, and infrastructure for businesses and banks that want to provide a more seamless and secure payment experience for their customers.
Milestone achieved
Since its inception, Flutterwave has processed close to $2 billion in payments and 25 million transactions across over 33 African countries where it currently operates. It has attracted significant investment from experienced Fintech investors such as Ycombinator Continuity Fund (investors in Stripe), Greycroft (investors in Braintree and Venmo), Greenvisor Capital, Omidyar Network, and Glynn Capital amongst others. In 2017 Flutterwave was named Africa’s best fintech company at the Apps Africa Innovation Awards.
Funding raised
| Announced Date | Transaction Name | Number of Investors | Money raised | Lead Investors. |
| Feb 16, 2022 | Series D – Flutterwave
|
9 | $250M | B Capital Group |
| Mar 9, 2021 | Series C – Flutterwave
|
12 | $170M | Avenir Growth Capital, Tiger Global Management |
| Jan 21, 2020 | Series B – Flutterwave
|
14 | $35M | Greycroft, Headline |
| Oct 15, 2018 | Series A – Flutterwave
|
6 | $9.2M | — |
| Jul 31, 2017 | Series A – Flutterwave
|
8 | $10M | Green Visor Capital, Greycroft |
| May 23, 2017 | Non Equity Assistance – Flutterwave
|
1 | $50K | Google Launchpad Accelerator |
| Sep 17, 2016 | Seed Round – Flutterwave
|
8 | — | — |
| Aug 15, 2016 | Seed Round – Flutterwave
|
13 | $230K | Y Combinator |
| Jun 12, 2016 | Pre Seed Round – Flutterwave
|
1 | — | — |
| May 13, 2016 | Angel Round – Flutterwave
|
1 |
In 2021, Flutterwave raised a US$170 million Series C funding round. At the time, this was the largest amount ever secured by an African tech startup and gave it a valuation of over US$1 billion, making Flutterwave a unicorn. Investors in Flutterwave include Y-Combinator, Visa Ventures, MasterCard, Avenir Growth Capital, and Tiger Global Management. Also in 2022, Flutterwave raised a US$250 million Series D funding round at over a US$3 billion valuation.
Investments
Flutterwave has made 2 investments
First is Cinetpay a mobile money payment hub that federates mobile money payment methods in Africa.
Flutterwave investment date: Dec 2021 paying $2.4 million.
The second is in Dapio is an app that makes getting paid a whole lot simpler, With Tap to Pay, for Android.
Flutterwave investment date: March 2022 paying $3.4 million
Other products
Send: Send allows you to send money to those that matter whether in Lagos, Nairobi, Addis Ababa, or London. You can use send to quickly and reliably send money to local bank accounts and even mobile money wallet whenever you want. Send was launched in Dec 2021.
Barter: Barter is a web and mobile app that lets you send and receive money from oversea instantly, and safely, at the cheapest rates, pay utility bills and create (Naira and dollar) virtual cards which can be used for transactions on various platforms. Barter was launched in January 2019.
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