Flutterwave closes $170m funding to empower small businesses

As part of a successful Series C round led by growth-equity firms Avenir Growth Capital and Tiger Global Management LLC, with participation from new and existing investors, Flutterwave, Africa’s payments tech company, has announced a $170 million fundraise.

The funding is coming on the backdrop of their $35 million Series B funding raised in January 2020. This round of funding brings the total investment in Flutterwave to $225 million, making the firm one of the few African fintech companies to have raised significant funds in a period of widespread disruption and economic uncertainty.

Flutterwave has recorded an exceptional revenue growth of 226 percent CAGR from 2018-2020, thanks to a favourable regulatory landscape, enabled by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

“Our successes would not be possible without our amazing people, who work tirelessly to achieve our goals, the trust and support we have received from our investors, partners and customers as well as regulatory bodies like the CBN, which under the leadership of Governor Godwin Emefiele has created enabling environment for technology, innovation and financial inclusion,” Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, founder/CEO, Flutterwave.

Further commenting on the fundraise, Agboola said, “Flutterwave will utilise the funding to continue its drive of empowering small businesses, which are the bedrock of the Nigerian economy, while facilitating smooth digital transformation for both governmental and non-governmental organisations.” This will also help Flutterwave execute an audacious growth strategy to become a leading global payments company connecting the highly fragmented African digital payments landscape.

“As we look to the future, our focus remains the same, to support our over 290,000 merchants across Africa every day as they strive to build their businesses and grow the economy. We look forward to increasing our investments across the continent, deepening the impact our platform has on lives and livelihoods as we take more businesses in Africa to the World, and at the same time continue to bring more of the World to Africa,” he stated.

There are clear indications that Flutterwave will invest the new capital to accelerate customer acquisition in existing and international markets as well as develop complementary and innovative products such as the newly launched Flutterwave Mobile, an app to help accelerate ecommerce growth as a result of the success of the Flutterwave Stores.

The company will also continue collaboration with the public sector in facilitating online payments for crucial projects and programmes such as the Abuja-Kaduna online railway booking system, COVID-19 test online booking system, and Nigeria immigration services online payment portal, among others.

Flutterwave was founded with the mission to create endless possibilities for customers and businesses in Africa and the emerging markets. It enables its customers to build customisable payment applications through its APIs. Flutterwave’s Series C fundraise comes on the back of an impressive run of 4 years in which the company reached over 290,000 merchants globally, launched a range of new products and partnerships and expanded its infrastructure into over 33 countries.