Flutterwave is one of Africa’s most defining technology companies — providing payment infrastructure that enables businesses to receive and make payments across Africa and globally through a single API. Founded in 2016 by Olugbenga “GB” Agboola (a former PayPal and Standard Bank engineer) and co-founders, the company operates in around 35 African countries, serves hundreds of thousands of businesses, and has processed over $50 billion across more than one billion transactions.

Its international client base includes Uber, Booking.com, Microsoft and Flywire, alongside the African businesses that form its core market, and its consumer remittance product Send App extends the platform to individuals. Flutterwave has raised close to $500 million over a decade from investors including Visa, Mastercard, Salesforce, Tiger Global, Whale Rock Capital and — in its 2026 round led by Ripple — pushing its valuation to approximately $3.25 billion, the highest of any African startup. That round also integrates Ripple’s dollar-pegged stablecoin into Flutterwave’s payment options, building on its earlier partnership with Polygon Labs as the default blockchain for Send App. The company is in the middle of a strategic transformation from payments processor into a licensed financial institution: it secured a Nigerian microfinance banking licence via its acquisition of open-banking platform Mono in January 2026, and is acquiring a bank in East Africa, with Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Africa and Egypt named as strategically important markets and the DRC and Ethiopia under longer-term consideration. Agboola has framed an IPO as a long-term milestone rather than an immediate objective, prioritising sustainable profitability, diversified revenues and strong governance first — the goal being a long-term company in Africa, for Africa.