Flutterwave teams up with PayPal to allow African merchants to accept and make payments

Cross-border e-commerce continues to provide significant growth opportunities for Africa’s economy. Research firm Statista estimates that the total value of e-commerce in Africa generated $16.5 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach $29 billion by 2022. This growth potential will provide many opportunities for SMEs and freelancers worldwide, subsequently increasing Africa’s share of global trade.

However, for many years Africa’s eCommerce ecosystem has lacked suitable payment solutions to meet the growing demand for seamless transactions worldwide, further constraining its contributions to the global digital economy. To address this problem, Flutterwave, a Silicon Valley-based Africa-focused payments startup company started by Nigerian founders, announced today that it has teamed up with PayPal to enable PayPal customers to pay African merchants through its platform.

The collaboration with PayPal will eliminate significant barriers that have previously hindered African consumers and businesses from the untapped potential of cross-border eCommerce. The collaboration will also connect small and medium enterprises with the more than 377 million PayPal account holders globally, Flutterwave said, eliminating the barrier to cross-border commerce.

Flutterwave has transformed the payments space in Africa by offering flexible, quick, and affordable payment services to individuals and businesses across the continent. As of today, African businesses have even more access to sell to global customers using PayPal’s secure platform to receive and make payments online.

Founded in 2016 by two Nigerians Iyinoluwa Aboyeji and Olugbenga Agboola, Flutterwave provides a payment service for global merchants and payment service providers. It provides technology, infrastructure, and services to enable global merchants, payment service providers, and helps banks and businesses build secure and seamless payment solutions for their customers by smoothening the exchange of funds.

Since its inception, Flutterwave has processed over 140 million transactions. Flutterwave said it is positioning to be an African payment platform for multinationals entering new markets. In a blog post on its website, Flutterwave said its integration with PayPal will be operational across 50 African countries and worldwide.

Online payments got a boost with the COVID-19 pandemic as people rely on mobile apps for shopping and paying bills. Like other companies in the digital payments sector, San Jose, California-based PayPal has profited from the boom in online transactions that pushed more business into the virtual realm.

Flutterwave recently raised $170 million from investors to expand its customer base, pushing its valuation up to more than $1 billion. The 5-year old startup is also considering going public in the nearest future.