In partnership with Flutterwave

Money makes the world go round, but in Africa, one company is leading the way in making that movement faster and smoother across the continent and beyond. The success story of Flutterwave and its leadership in Africa’s tech ecosystem have been remarkable. How did this African business – a tech company that makes it easier for businesses to accept payments from customers – achieve such an enviable position?

Flutterwave was launched when CEO and founder Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola recognised, while working at a bank in South Africa in 2016, how challenging it was for multinational companies to process payrolls across Africa. This challenge, he explains, sparked the idea of creating a system that would seamlessly connect Africa and the global economy.

When the company started, the idea of supporting large, multinational businesses seemed ambitious. At the time, Africa’s fragmented payment landscape, with different systems in different countries and regions, meant that many systems didn’t interact efficiently with each other.

“This typically meant that business and personal transactions sent to Accra from Lagos, or from Nairobi to Johannesburg, had to be sent to Europe or North America, then rerouted back to the continent,” Agboola notes. “It was a costly and time-consuming process that we believed we could fix.”  This led to the company’s focus on “streamlining payments through a single API” that connects both local and international payment systems across Africa.

Fast forward eight years and Flutterwave has successfully achieved this. Today, it processes payments online across more than 30 African countries. “We facilitate local and international payments for businesses and individuals of all sizes through a range of solutions,” explains Agboola.

These solutions include Flutterwave for Business, the company’s comprehensive payment platform, and the Send App by Flutterwave. The former makes it simple for businesses to make and receive payments, while the latter, according to Agboola, “enables Africans in the diaspora to send money faster and more affordably to their loved ones back home.”

Flutterwave’s services also cater to a wide range of businesses, and its ambitions have expanded beyond the initial goals set in 2016. “Today, we’re focused on connecting Africa to the world and the world to Africa through our payment infrastructure,” says Agboola.

This global outlook has enabled Flutterwave to partner on large-scale projects with both global enterprises operating in Africa and local businesses scaling globally. Notable partnerships include working with Uber to facilitate payments for rides across Africa and managing payments for Nigerian airline Air Peace, particularly after the launch of its Lagos-to-London route.

Flutterwave also contributes to charitable and community-focused initiatives. One standout example is the company’s #Keepingthelightson campaign, which supported over 40,000 small and medium-sized businesses by helping them go online for free during the pandemic. “Additionally, Flutterwave has supported numerous educational and empowerment programs aimed at fostering entrepreneurship and financial inclusion across Africa,” says Agboola.

Identifying and addressing a gap in the market has allowed Flutterwave to grow exponentially since being founded in 2016. Does Agboola believe that this rise can serve as a model for other African businesses? “Absolutely,” he confirms. “Our success demonstrates the potential for African entrepreneurs to create innovative and scalable solutions that address local challenges while also competing on a global scale,” he concludes.

Find out more at the Flutterwave website.