Flutterwave, Africa’s largest fintech startup, has announced its intention to discontinue its virtual card service, Barter, which was first introduced in 2017.
The company aims to refocus on its core business and remittance sectors, notifying customers to withdraw their funds from the app over the past four weeks.
“The decision to close Barter follows a thorough analysis of market trends and evolving customer needs, as revealed by Flutterwave,” TechCabal reported.
Flutterwave is shifting its focus to enterprise services and remittances, which have proven to be more successful.
According to information shared by one of its co-founders with Quartz Africa in 2018, Barter only accounted for about 1% of the $2 billion worth of transactions processed by the company.
While the retail sector remains important, Flutterwave’s immediate priority is to optimize services for businesses and enhance its remittance solutions.
The firm’s remittance products, such as Send and Swap, are positioned to capture a significant portion of Africa’s $54 billion remittance market, although the extent of their progress is still unclear.
Since its introduction in 2017, Barter has been a flagship product among early tech startups facilitating international payments for Nigerians.
Despite its pioneering status, Barter faced challenges such as extended downtime in 2022 due to updates from its card-issuing partner, Union54, which faced a $1.2 billion fraud attempt.
Users also experienced platform downtime and card rejections by various merchants, including Netflix, Facebook, PayPal, and Apple Music.