Lagos — Africa-focused fintech firm Flutterwave on Tuesday announced a $35m fundraising round and partnerships with WorldPay and Visa as it targets expansion in north Africa. The start-up, founded in 2016 by Nigerians and headquartered in San Francisco, specialises in individual and consumer transfers — one of several fintech firms aiming to facilitate and capitalise on Africa’s booming payments market. As part of the deal, Flutterwave will become the African payment provider for Worldpay’s clients worldwide, making the company the latest African fintech firm to attract global cash and big-name partnerships. As part of the latest funding round, Flutterwave will scale up and expand that service, allowing it to issue physical and virtual Visa cards and process payments using Visa’s networks. Visa also bought a 20% stake in Nigerian payments firm Interswitch late in 2019, elevating it to “unicorn” status — a term used for tech companies with a valuation of $1bn or more.

Source: The North Africa Journal January 21, 2020 20:26 UTC