{"id":3089,"date":"2022-02-16T12:15:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-16T11:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ancstockinvestments.com\/blog\/?p=3089"},"modified":"2022-02-16T11:48:14","modified_gmt":"2022-02-16T10:48:14","slug":"what-flutterwave-needs-250-million-for-think-fintech-domination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ancstockinvestments.com\/blog\/2022\/02\/16\/what-flutterwave-needs-250-million-for-think-fintech-domination\/","title":{"rendered":"What Flutterwave Needs $250 Million for? Think Fintech Domination"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Less than a year after Flutterwave became a unicorn<\/a> through a mega-round co-led by Tiger Global, nine mostly US investors have co-invested $250 million at a $3 billion valuation, believing that this six-year-old African fintech company will eventually dominate its market.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Flutterwave said the money will be used for expansion and customer acquisition, by looking for companies to buy or invest in and creating products that amplify the value of its payment processing business. Actually, the company has had these plans for a while, especially since its big raise last year, and has executed quite a bit on them; it bought Disha<\/a>, a faltering Nigerian ecommerce startup and co-led a $2.4 million investment in a payment gateway for Francophone Africa<\/a>. Perhaps its most eye-catching move was signing Grammy-winning star Wizkid as a brand ambassador, leveraging his cult following to launch a remittance service<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The pace of execution has paid off in more customers\u2014over 900,000 businesses served globally today versus 290,000 a year ago<\/a>, according to the company\u2014and more money with which to stay relentless.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlutterwave may ultimately build one of the most consequential fintech businesses in the world, enabling hundreds of thousands of merchants to transact online and connect Africa to the global economy,\u201d said Matt Levinson, partner at B Capital Group, a California-based firm that first invested in the startup in 2017 and led the latest round.<\/p>\n

Also Read: VC Funding for African Tech Startups Hit a Record High in 2021<\/a><\/h5>\n

From a processor to a multi-product platform<\/b><\/h2>\n

African fintech is a hotly contested field of companies that started with one product but steadily tweaked their blueprints for bigger dreams<\/a>. In doing so, they are beginning to compete directly with each other as platforms. For example, Flutterwave\u2019s venture into remittance places it in an arena that already included Chipper Cash<\/a>, and MFS Africa<\/a>, two of the continent\u2019s most well-funded companies.<\/p>\n

Flutterwave may ultimately build one of the most consequential fintech businesses in the world.<\/p>\n

But Olugbenga Agboola, Flutterwave\u2019s CEO, believes his team always wanted to be more than just a payment processor, that they \u201cset out to build a platform that simplifies payments.\u201d (In 2019, they launched an app in partnership with Visa that provided users virtual dollar cards for online payments.) Indeed, Levinson says a company\u2019s \u201cbroad platform potential\u201d is one of his firm\u2019s investment criteria.<\/p>\n

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