Nigerian Payments Startup, Flutterwave Raises $170 Million, Now Valued At Over $1 Billion
Nigerian payments startup, Flutterwave has raised $170 million in a Series C funding round, the largest amount ever secured by an African tech startup.
Series C financing (also known as series C round or series C funding) is one of the stages in the capital-raising process by a startup. The series C round is the fourth stage of startup financing, and typically the last stage of venture capital financing. However, some companies opt to conduct more rounds, such as series D, E, etc.
With that, the African-focused startup has now achieved “unicorn” status with a value of over US$1 billion. In business, a unicorn is a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion.
Olugbenga Agboola, the founder and CEO of Flutterwave in a video shared on the company’s official Twitter page on Wednesday, March 10 announced their new achievement.
We are thrilled to share news of our $170 million #SeriesC funding which will be crucial in improving our technology, product, customer support, and expansion drive. pic.twitter.com/NpVwk1AjnA
— Flutterwave (@theflutterwave) March 10, 2021
The new feat has now positioned the company to further connect and capitalize on the continent’s thriving yet highly fragmented digital payment landscape.
According to Techcrunch, the funding round was led by New York-based private investment firm Avenir Growth Capital and U.S. hedge fund and investment firm Tiger Global.
New and existing investors who participated in this round include DST Global, Early Capital Berrywood, Green Visor Capital, Greycroft Capital, Insight Ventures, PayPal, Salesforce Ventures, Tiger Management, Worldpay FIS 9yards Capital.
Launched in 2016 by two Nigerians, Olugbenga Agboola and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, as a Nigerian and U.S.-based payments company with offices in Lagos and San Francisco, Flutterwave helps businesses build customizable payments applications through its Application Programming Interface (APIs).
Flutterwave has an active presence in 11 African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa.
The Series C round comes a year after Flutterwave closed its $35 million Series B and $20 million Series A in 2018. In total, Flutterwave has raised $225 million and is one of the few African startups to have secured more than $200 million in funding.
At the time of its Series B just over one year ago had processed 100 million transactions valued at over US$5.4 billion for global leaders including Uber and Booking.com. The funding is for expansion into new markers.
Now, the company has processed over 140 million transactions worth more than $9 billion with an impressive clientele of international companies, including Booking.com, Facebook, Flywire, and Uber.
Flutterwave noted that more than 290,000 businesses use its platform to carry out payments and they can do so in 150 currencies and multiple payment modes including local and international cards, mobile wallets, bank transfers, Barter by Flutterwave.
