Nigeria’s Flutterwave said to seek funding at $3-billion valuation

Flutterwave, a Nigerian payments firm, is seeking fresh funding at a valuation of US$3-billion or more, a figure that would roughly triple its last valuation, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The start-up, which has offices in Lagos in Nigeria and San Francisco in the US, recently held discussions with potential investors, the people said. Terms of the funding round haven’t been finalised, and it’s possible they may change.

A Flutterwave spokeswoman declined to comment.

Led by CEO Olugbenga Agboola, the company in March said it had achieved unicorn status after raising $170-million in a round led by Avenir Growth Capital and Tiger Global Management. Other participating investors in that deal included DST Global, Greycroft, Insight Partners and Salesforce Ventures, the company said at the time.

Also in March, Flutterwave said it would collaborate with PayPal to enable the US giant’s global customers to pay African merchants using Flutterwave’s platform. The start-up enables the creation of virtual Mastercard and Visa cards, among other payments services, according to its website.

Flutterwave has said it facilitates cross-border transactions across Africa for companies including Facebook, Uber Technologies and Booking.com. As of March, the start-up said it had processed more than 140 million transactions worth over $9-billion in aggregate and that its revenue had risen at a compound annual growth rate of 225% between 2018 and 2020.  — Reported by Gillian Tan, (c) 2021 Bloomberg LP