Flutterwave, a Lagos and SF-based payments technology company, has raised $170 million Series C round, bringing the total investment raised to $225 million and valuing the company at more than $1 billion.
This funding follows its earlier close of $35m in January last year to expand across Francophone and North Africa in its efforts to connect merchants in Africa. The firm had earlier raised over $10 million Series A extension funding round which brought over $20 million to the company.
Founded in 2016 and led by Olugbenga Agboola, Flutterwave will use new funds to execute its ambitious growth strategy to become a leading global payments company, empower SMEs and multinational brands in the highly fragmented African digital payments landscape and accelerate customer acquisition in existing and international markets.
According to Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, co-founder and CEO of Flutterwave: “When Flutterwave was founded in 2016, the payments landscape in Africa was highly fragmented so the goal was to build a pan-African platform that simplified payments for everyone. However, our successes would not be possible without (1) Our amazing team of 300+ employees that work tirelessly to achieve our goals (2) The trust and support we have received from our investors and customers and (3) Regulatory bodies like the Central Bank of Nigeria which – under the leadership of the current Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele – has remained at the forefront of the significant efforts that are currently being made by African governments to create the enabling environment for technology, innovation and financial inclusion. This humbling support has created the backbone upon which companies like Flutterwave have been able to thrive.”
The firm will also develop complementary and innovative products such as the newly launched Flutterwave Mobile, an app to help accelerate e-commerce growth as a result of the success of the Flutterwave Stores. This fundraise comes at a time when Covid-19 has accelerated the shift to digital payments in Africa, which has contributed to Flutterwave’s exceptional revenue growth of 226% CAGR from 2018-2020.
This latest funding round was led by Avenir and Tiger Global with participation from DST Global, Early Capital Berrywood, Green Visor Capital, Greycroft Capital, Insight Ventures, PayPal, Salesforce Ventures, Tiger Management, WorldpayFIS, and 9yards Capital. Avenir and Tiger Global have funded some of the brightest tech start-ups in the world including Current, Latch, Savage x Fenty, JD.com and Facebook.
Jamie Reynolds, Partner at Avenir Growth Capital, commented: “Flutterwave is at the forefront of innovation in payments technology, and we are excited to support the team as they build the last available payments infrastructure frontier in the world – connecting merchants and consumers intra-Africa and globally.”
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 Flutterwave reached over 290,000 merchants and over 500,000 registered Barter users, launched a range of new products and partnerships and expanded its infrastructure into over 33 countries.
