Flutterwave Launches in South Africa

Nigerian fintech startup, Flutterwave which currently operates in Nigeria, Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroon, Ghana, Rwanda and Sierra Leone has launched its payment services in South Africa - becoming its ninth market on the continent.

Launched in 2016, Flutterwave builds modern payments technology and infrastructure for Africa to enable people and businesses to connect with the global economy. The payment solution business provides a payment service for merchants, payment service providers and pan-African banks. The Y-Combinator alumni, Flutterwave, was granted its South African Reserve Bank licence to operate in the country in April, and it is set to launch its online product RAVE, with launch events scheduled for Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town.

The startup is well-backed, raising US$10 million in Series A funding in August 2017 and then an extension round last year to take its total raised funding to date to more than US$20 million. Investors include Mastercard, CRE Ventures, Fintech Collective, 4DX Ventures, Raba Capital, Green Visor Capital and Greycroft Partners.

The payments platform claims to have processed over $2.5 billion for clients such as Uber, Facebook and Transferwise, among others.

According to the CEO of Flutterwave, Olugbenga Agboola, the company is "in the business of growing businesses."

Early this year, the startup partnered with Visa to launch GetBarter, an application that allows consumers and merchants to make and accept payments locally and internationally. The GetBarter app is a lifestyle payment solution that operates globally with an initial user base in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa.