Flutterwave raises $170 million; now valued at over $1 billion

Flutterwave, an Africa-focused payments company, on Wednesday announced that it has secured $170 million from a leading group of international investors to expand its customer base in existing and international markets and to develop new products.

With this, Flutterwave could consider a New York listing, a Reuters report quoted its chief executive officer and co-founder, Olugbenga Agboola, to have said.

“We may consider the possibility of listing in New York or a possible dual listing in New York and Nigeria,” Mr Agboola said.

According to a statement from the firm, the company’s valuation is now in excess of $1 billion.

The fundraise brings the total investment in Flutterwave to $225 million, it said in a statement, and that the COVID-19 pandemic had accelerated the shift to digital payments in Africa.

The report noted that the fundraising round was led by Avenir Growth Capital and Tiger Global Management LLC.

Jamie Reynolds, a partner at Avenir Growth Capital said “Flutterwave is at the forefront of innovation in payments technology.”

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“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, ” he said.

Flutterwave which was founded in 2016 by Nigerians, specialises in individual and consumer transfers but is headquartered in San Francisco.

It is a fintech group aiming to facilitate and capitalise on the striving African payments market majorly driven by increased mobile phone use and faster internet speeds.