For striking partnerships that provide businesses all around the world with a wide range of payment solutions to enable them to expand their operations in Africa and other emerging markets, Flutterwave is LEADERSHIP e-Commerce Company of the Year
Year 2020 could be regarded as the best so far for Flutterwave. Its successes in fundraising, partnerships with global processing and payment companies, banks, mobile money and mobile network operators have raised its profile and value as a $1billion unicorn.
Founded in 2016 by a team of ex-bankers, entrepreneurs and engineers to provide businesses all around the world with a powerful, reliable and intelligent payment gateway to expand their operations in Africa and other emerging markets, Flutterwave enables cross-border transactions via one API (application programme interface).
To date, Flutterwave has processed over 140 million transactions worth over $9 billion and served more than 300,000 businesses, offering payment processing in 150 currencies and multiple payment modes including local and international cards, mobile wallets, bank transfers, Barter by Flutterwave and so on.
Early in 2020, Flutterwave raised $170 million as part of a successful Series C round to execute an ambitious growth strategy to become a leading global payments company, empowering SMEs and multinational brands by connecting the highly fragmented African digital payments landscape.
It partnered with payments giant PayPal to ensure that their merchants add PayPal as a payment option, helping African businesses connect to over 377 million PayPal accounts globally. It also partnered with FIS, the largest processing and payments company in the world, to expand Worldpay, its payment processing platform, into the rapidly growing markets of South Africa and Nigeria.
In the course of the year, MTN and Flutterwave agreed to increase mobile money usage and penetration in Africa to improve local economies and livelihoods as well as create opportunities for individuals and businesses across the continent. This would enable Flutterwave to offer MTN Mobile Money as a payment method to its business customers.
Flutterwave also partnered with Standard Bank to enhance digital payment experiences for its customers in Nigeria and seven other countries as well as Nigeria’s payment service bank, 9PSB, to create a seamless payment ecosystem by aggregating and simplifying transactions for banking agents, merchants, and consumers.
During the USSD crisis between deposit money banks and MTN Nigeria, Flutterwave was quickly tapped among other fintechs to ensure that subscribers had a quick means of recharging their phones from their bank accounts.
Flutterwave has also been flaunting its cash to improve its business with the acquisition of Disha, a Nigerian company that empowers makers and creators with tools and templates to showcase their work and grow their business without writing code.
