Africa-focused FinTech company Flutterwave has raised $170m in a Series C round pushing the company’s valuation to more than $1bn.
Led by New York-based private investment firm Avenir Growth Capital, US hedge fund and Tiger Global, the round saw participation from new and existing investors including DST Global, Early Capital Berrywood, Green Visor Capital, Greycroft Capital, Insight Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Tiger Management, WorldpayFIS and 9yards Capital.
The new funding brings the total investment in the company to $225m.
The payments firm intends to use the new funds to boost its customer acquisition in existing and international markets. To add on, it plans to develop products such as the newly launched Flutterwave Mobile, an app to help accelerate eCommerce growth in the region.
Founded in 2016 by former bank managers from JP Morgan, Nigeria’s Access Bank, Standard Bank Nigeria and KPMG, Flutterwave provides digital payment services for small businesses in Africa and helps firms make customisable payments through its cross-border platform via one API.
Flutterwave’s founder and chief executive Olugbenga Agboola said that the firm aims to “build a payments technology infrastructure that connects Africa to the global economy by making local and international payments seamless.”
“We knew this would be incredibly difficult but we continued,” he added in a Twitter thread.
Adding on the new investment round Agboola said, “As we look to the future, our focus remains the same which is to stand by our 290,000 merchants across Africa every day as they strive to build their mom-and-pop stores into global businesses.
“We look forward to increasing our investments across the continent and 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.”
The FinTech company has gone on to process more than $1bn in value over 140 million transactions worth over $9bn to date.
The Flutterwave platform is being used in 150 currencies through multiple payment modes including local and international cards, mobile wallets, bank transfers as well as Barter by Flutterwave. With a reach in over 33 African countries including Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa, the FinTech unicorn boasts of a customer base with players like Uber, Flywire, Booking.com and Facebook among others.
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