Nigerian-founded startup Flutterwave lands $250M in Series D funding to disrupt payments in Africa and other emerging markets; now the most valued African startup at over $3 billion

About a year ago, Flutterwave, a Silicon Valley-based Africa-focused payments startup company started by Nigerian founders, teamed up with PayPal to enable PayPal customers to pay African merchants through its platform. A lot has changed since our last coverage of the six-year-old fintech startup.

Today, the SoftBank-backed Flutterwave shocked the FinTech world after it announced it has raised $250 million in Series D funding, valuing the company at over $3 billion in just twelve months, making Flutterwave the highest valued African startup.

The latest round was led by B Capital Group, and with participation from Alta Park Capital, Whale Rock Capital, Lux Capital, among others. Several existing investors who also participated in previous rounds also followed this round, including, Glynn Capital, Avenir Growth, Tiger Global, Green Visor Capital, Salesforce Ventures.

Flutterwave said it will use the latest cash infusion to drive its ambitious expansion plan to accelerate customer acquisition in existing markets and growth through M&A and develop complementary products while encouraging new innovations in its products and services development.

Founded in 2016 by two Nigerians Olugbenga Agboola (CEO) and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, 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.

Commenting on the funding, Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave, said: “Our story is that of resilience and hard work. Our growth so far is due to the support of our customers, our partners, the banks, the public, the regulators, and importantly our people. The Central Bank of Nigeria, under the leadership of Dr. Godwin Emefiele, laid the vision of a transformational Payment System in Nigeria, provided the framework for innovation in this space, and has continued to create regulations that have enabled us to grow and thrive. We are grateful to them and to all the other Central Banks in all the countries where we operate

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.

Since its inception six years ago, Flutterwave has processed over 140 million transactions. Flutterwave said it is positioning itself to be an African payment platform for multinationals entering new markets. To date, the company has raised a total of $475 million.