Flutterwave Rises to $3 Billion Valuation, Becomes Highest Valued African Startup

On Wednesday in the African technology scene, Nigeria’s Flutterwave became the highest valued African startup after raising $250 million, bringing the company valuation to $3 billion.

At $3 billion, using an exchange rate of N570 to one United States’ dollar, it means Flutterwave’s valuation is approximately N1.71 trillion.

Flutterwave’s new valuation means the firm is more valuable than the two most valuable banks listed on the NGX, ZENITH and GTCO, combined.

These two legacy banks have a combined market capitalization of N1.62 trillion as of close of market on Thursday. It is also more valuable than FBNH, ACCESS and UBA combined. The trio have a combined market capitalization of N1.07 trillion as of close of market on Thursday.

The valuation also means that Flutterwave would rank #5 on the SWOOT list, making it the fifth most valuable company when compared to the companies listed on the NGX. Its valuation would also account for 6.74% of the total equity market capitalization of NGX which currently stands at approximately N25.4 trillion as of close of market on Thursday.

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The company had in March last year announced it raised $170 million in a Series C round led by Tiger Global and Avenir, putting its valuation at $1 billion.

The new deal, the start-up said, will help boost customer acquisition in existing markets and deepen growth through mergers and acquisitions as well as facilitate product development.

Flutterwave has processed more than 200 million transactions estimated at over $16 billion since inception and served more than 900,000 businesses across the world.

“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,” Mr Agboola said in a website statement.

“We set out to build a platform that simplifies payments for everyone and today, our solutions are used across the globe to connect Africans to the world and the world to Africans.

“We are delighted that investors believe in us and our story and are committing their resources to this belief.

Matt Levinson, Partner at B Capital said, “At B Capital, we seek to back generational companies with broad platform potential. “

He said Flutterwave has a unique opportunity to accomplish this as the dominant payments infrastructure provider across Africa.

“In addition to their emergence as the leading enterprise payments processor for the continent, Flutterwave is innovating at breakneck speed with novel fintech solutions for large corporates, SMEs and consumers. I’ve had the pleasure of backing this world-class team since 2017 and couldn’t be more thrilled that B Capital is leading their Series D.

David Glynn, Managing Partner of Glynn Capital added, “We believe the digitization of payments globally is one of the largest and most important trends in technology.

“Having been investors in Flutterwave since 2017, we have had a front-row seat in seeing Flutterwave establish itself as a leading payments company in Africa as it drives adoption of seamless digital payments experiences for merchants and consumers alike.”