Table of Contents
- Overview of Flutterwave
- Summary of Flutterwave’s African payment solutions
- African payments company Flutterwave raises $170M, now valued at over $1B
- African payments market
- Challenges of African payments
- Flutterwave’s Solutions
- Flutterwave’s payment gateway
- Flutterwave’s mobile app
- Flutterwave’s API
- Flutterwave’s Impact
- Flutterwave’s success in Africa
- Flutterwave’s recent funding round
- Flutterwave’s valuation
African payments company Flutterwave has recently raised $170M, making it the most valuable technology startup on the continent and taking its total valuation over $1B.
The startup was formed in 2016 in Nigeria by Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, it has become a staple for business-to-business payments and remittances in Africa.
This article will explore Flutterwave’s solutions, advantages and growth.
Overview of Flutterwave
Flutterwave is a Fintech start-up providing African payment solutions to allow businesses and consumers to make and receive payments in multiple currencies. Their mission is to simplify payments in Africa by building a single platform that allows organisations to leverage the vast opportunities in the continent.
It helps merchants, banks, and money transfer operators payment authentication, processing, reconciliation across Africa and beyond.
Their services provide an easy way of accepting online payments, enabling small businesses to access bigger markets without managing a complex bank infrastructure. This provides peace of mind for customers and merchants as funds can be easily tracked quickly via modern tools like dashboards, automated reconciliations reports etc.
By working closely with key industry partners such as Visa, Mastercard, Flutterwave can reach out to over 400 million African consumers which helps them build their ecommerce businesses efficiently.
It also offers end-to-end payment suites like Standard disbursements which covers the entire process (from issuing transaction records on a distributed ledger to sending funds) plus other banking services such as merchant banking, account opening, merchant onboarding and clearance domestically or internationally all within one unified system.
Summary of Flutterwave’s African payment solutions
Flutterwave has established itself as the leader in African payment solutions, with an aim to make it seamless to pay or get paid on the continent. With their reliable and secure platform, they are transforming the way businesses make and receive payments.
Flutterwave provides a range of products for customers across Africa to facilitate payments for individuals, businesses, and governments. These include:
- Rave: enabling customers to accept payments across debit cards, credit cards, ACH (bank transfer) from customers worldwide in their local currency.
- Barter: allows businesses to carry out transactions at an affordable rate without strings attached. Businesses can easily accept payments through QR Codes or online links with Barter.
- Fawry: an e-commerce platform that enables individuals and businesses to safely conduct fast financial transactions through ATM/POS networks.
- Mobile Payments: Flutterwave’s mobile payment solution is designed to enable safe and secure payment experience on devices such as iOS or Android smartphones. Additionally, it supports digital wallets such as Apple Pay, Google Pay.
- Swift Network is a low cost remittance service offering swift cash transfers across Africa within seconds using Quick Response (QR) codes at extremely low costs– less than other remittance services available today.
In addition to these products, Flutterwave also ensures secure access for international merchants via their API, enabling users easy access into different marketplaces through mobile apps or website ownership, enabling them more business opportunities across African Markets.
African payments company Flutterwave raises $170M, now valued at over $1B
African Payments Company, Flutterwave, shows strong signs of growth and success in the payment industry after recently raising $170M and becoming valued at over $1B. This signals a new wave of progress and innovation in remittance payments and transactions within the African region.
This article will discuss the emerging trends and developments within the African payment space and how Flutterwave is leading the way.
African payments market
The African payments market is growing rapidly and is one of the most attractive markets for businesses looking to expand into fintech. According to Flutterwave, Africa’s total addressable market opportunity is estimated to be around $1 trillion, with an estimated 10 percent growth in 2020. The rapid growth of digital payments, mobile banking, and other related technologies have made it easier and more convenient for people in Africa to send and receive money and make payments.
Africa’s unique combination of diverse cultures, languages, currencies, and regulations has challenged global businesses looking to access this region. However, several solutions have been developed by leading companies such as Flutterwave that have helped bridge this gap. Flutterwave offers advanced payment solutions, including domestic payment processing, cross-border payments and remittances, merchant services (including merchant management), consumer protection tools, and credit card payment acceptance services. All these services aim at providing end-to-end solutions for customers operating within the African continent.
The African markets present a huge potential opportunity for businesses wishing to expand their presence across the continent – however understanding how payments work in each country remains a challenge as laws vary from one jurisdiction to another. Companies such as Flutterwave help businesses navigate the complex landscape of different regulations when expanding into African countries by providing robust payment infrastructure that ensures secure transactions . Consequently, businesses can leverage technology-based solutions to reduce transaction risks while getting potential access to millions of new customers in Africa without worrying about manual processes or regulatory compliance issues.
Challenges of African payments
Due to their highly fragmented nature, African payments come with unique challenges and lack of a unified infrastructure. This can make it difficult for local or international businesses to tap into the Afrocentric payment landscape. Moreover, even when businesses can access suitable payment options, there is room for improvement and optimization.
Examples of key challenges associated with African payments include:
- High cost of cross-border transactions.
- Limited credit card penetration, leaving most purchases reliant on cash and checks.
- Lack of seamless integration between banking systems in different countries throughout the continent.
- Low usage of digital payments due to the lack of trust and ease-of-use associated with them, in addition to inadequate infrastructure around digital security and fraud prevention across African nations.
- Limited availability of payment types across sectors, such as travel or telecommunications.
By understanding these challenges, businesses can begin formulating solutions that overcome these issues to better capitalise on Africa’s massive market potential. Companies like Flutterwave provide:
- Payment solutions that address these unique challenges by bridging Africa’s fragmentation gap.
- Allowing for an uninterrupted transactional flow across countries and continents alike.
- Enable customers to make seamless local or international payments at any time from any device without needing expensive specialised services or access points.
Flutterwave’s Solutions
Flutterwave, a leading African payments company, recently announced a new funding round of $170 million. This brings the company’s total valuation to over $1 billion and demonstrates their potential as an African payments leader.
With this investment, Flutterwave can provide payment solutions across the African continent, revolutionising how businesses make and receive payments. Let’s take a deeper look into Flutterwave’s payment solutions and the impact they are making across the continent.
Flutterwave’s payment gateway
Flutterwave’s Payment Gateway is an end-to-end solution that helps you process payments anywhere in the world. The gateway supports the most popular payment methods, including debit and credit cards, mobile wallets, and 3D Secure-protected transactions. As a result, Flutterwave enables all your customers to pay with their preferred method, increasing conversion rates and customer satisfaction.
Our Payment Gateway is secure, reliable, and integrated into our comprehensive suite of products to give you end-to-end control over your payments. With a single platform of tools for payments management and fraud prevention, you can help protect your business from potential risk. In addition, the secure payment platform supports real-time tracking of orders and automated reconciliation processes for smooth accounting practices.
Plus, our integrated APIs make moving money between different accounts across Africa seamless with superb speed at low cost — both cross-border payments and domestic transfers — without any geographic restrictions in many countries across the continent including Botswana; Ghana; Kenya; Nigeria; Rwanda; Senegal & South Africa to name a few. Flutterwave’s gateway also enables merchants to start accepting payments from international customers by providing a simple but secure checkout experience for them to enter their details online.
Flutterwave’s mobile app
Flutterwave’s mobile app provides integrated payment solutions for businesses looking to offer a seamless shopping experience for their customers. The mobile-based app allows users to quickly and conveniently pay for goods and services with their bank cards in any currency, with an effortless sign up process that requires minimal customer input. With the app, businesses can manage their external transfers and internal movement of funds with one dashboard solution. The user-friendly interface makes it easy to perform online payments securely and quickly in Africa.
The Flutterwave app also allows businesses to track customer transaction history in real time, giving them a clearer picture of spending habits and overall financial health. Additionally, its multi-factor authentication feature ensures customer data is secure while allowing businesses to create reminders for customers on upcoming due payments using automated notifications via email or SMS. This provides companies the convenience and peace of mind that payments are received on time without wasting valuable resources chasing up vendors or clients manually.
Moreover, businesses have access to support anytime should they require assistance or advice in managing payment handling processes. All this combined make Flutterwave’s mobile app an ideal payment solution for business owners across Africa who need a reliable method designed from the start with them in mind.
Flutterwave’s API
Flutterwave’s API allows businesses and organisations to build powerful payment and transaction related solutions for customers within Africa. The Flutterwave API provides a secure and easy way for businesses to send, receive and store payments across multiple African countries from one platform. Flutterwave also facilitates money transfers between African currencies, allowing customers to easily transfer funds among accounts in different countries with ease.
The API securely links users’ bank accounts to the Flutterwave platform, which helps them manage their finances in real-time while keeping their information safe. In addition, Flutterwave supports integrating additional payment channels such as mobile money, debit cards, USSD and cryptocurrency to provide maximum flexibility for customers.
The flexible API also enables businesses to create customised solutions with streamlined checkout systems, digital wallet integrations and automated notifications whenever transactions occur. The API is also backed by a reliable customer service team available 24/7 to assist with any technical issues. With Flutterwave’s African payment solutions, businesses can maximise efficiency while providing an unparalleled customer experience.
Flutterwave’s Impact
African payments company Flutterwave has recently closed a $170 Million fundraise, giving it a post-money valuation of $1 Billion. This impressive feat comes after several years of hard work, building customer trust and developing innovative payment solutions across Africa.
Let’s look at Flutterwave’s success on the continent and the African payments industry.
Flutterwave’s success in Africa
Flutterwave, a fintech company committed to creating an easier and secure payments system across all African countries, has experienced tremendous success in revolutionising the African payment system. Since its launch in 2016, Flutterwave has revolutionised African payment methods by providing users with convenient and secure payment solutions through its easy-to-use mobile/desktop platform. Furthermore, this platform accepts local and international credit cards and debit cards, making it ideal for Africans who frequently engage in global trade.
In addition, Flutterwave simplifies establishing connections between various financial institutions. By connecting various banks and other financial institutions across the continent together, Flutterwave has created a vast network of individuals and businesses who can securely access each other’s platforms for various services. This is especially beneficial for those operating ecommerce stores who wish to reach out to customers from different parts of Africa without having to set up costly infrastructure networks.
Moreover, Flutterwave’s products are being successfully used not only within but outside of Africa as well — banks such as Barclays UK and Access Bank Nigeria both make use of Flutterwave’s technology to provide their customers with better experiences when making international money transfers or payments. This wide acceptance further increases the trustworthiness of Flutterwave’s solutions, contributing to its success across Africa.
Flutterwave’s recent funding round
Flutterwave, an African payment processing platform, has recently closed a $170 million Series C funding round– finalising the largest venture capital raise in an African Fintech company and propelling the organisation into unicorn status (companies with a valuation over US$1 billion).
Avenir Growth Capital, CRE Venture Capital, Mastercard, Qualcomm Ventures and Tiger Global Management drove this funding. Other investors included Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund, Green Visor Capital and GV. This aggressively brings Flutterwave’s total amount of venture capital raised to over $225 million.
Flutterwave works with traditional financial institutions to build infrastructure for business-to-business payments more efficiently and securely. The company currently provides payment solutions in more than 34 countries across Africa. With this new funding round, Flutterwave will use the capital to further build their capabilities and expand into new markets– making payments accessible to even more people on the continent.
The ability for professionals to process payments quickly and securely is a fundamental part of any economy’s growth – spurring efficiency, creating trust among buyers/sellers, reducing financial leakage due to middlemen fees etc. With this increased level of investment into their enterprise, Flutterwave’s solutions are having an immense impact on how money is seen & transferred across Africa.
Flutterwave’s valuation
As of May 2020, Flutterwave was valued at $170 million, making it one of Africa’s most successful FinTech startups and an important part of its digital payments ecosystem. Founded in 2016, Flutterwave has since become a major player in online payments on the continent with over 7 million customers across more than 15 countries using its products.
Flutterwave’s platform is revolutionising online payments in Africa. Their API connects to more than 60 payment solutions, powering local payments through web and mobile applications. It makes it easier for businesses and individuals to pay for freight, remittance, retail purchases, B2B invoices, peer-to-peer transfers (such as ridesharing) and international transactions. Moreover, their solutions are compliant with financial regulations thus providing greater security and trust among users.
The company provides low cost cross-border money transfer solutions with no hidden fees while preserving the privacy of customers’ data through encryption protocols. This has enabled banks that use Flutterwave’s services to facilitate faster international payments which handle currencies from different countries thereby removing conversion costs incurred by importers and exporters.
Flutterwave is well-positioned to drive continued innovation in payment technologies – they are strongly committed to the growth of African businesses by promoting development through facilitating secure digital payment systems which simplify banking procedures for traders on the continent. With average transaction processing times faster than traditional banking methods, Flutterwave is quickly becoming a preferred choice for handling financial transactions within African markets as demonstrated by their continual rise in valuation over the past few years.