A Bittersweet Saga As Flutterwave Raises USD 20 Mn And Loses Its Founder
After a year of raising USD 10 Mn in Series A, leading Nigerian fintech company, Flutterwave has extended the round, bringing the total investment to USD 20 Mn. But in the spirit of celebration and hope that the firm will spread its tentacles, the founder and high-profile CEO, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, announced his resignation from Flutterwave. This marks Aboyeji’s second exit from a company he co-founded in less than five years.
This latest round of funding includes investments form MasterCard, CRE Ventures, Fintech Collective, 4DX Ventures, Raba Capital and others. This company, whose largest investors are Green Visor Capital and Greycroft Partners, was launched in 2016 to build a state-of-the-art payments technology and infrastructure for Africa to enable people and businesses connect with the global economy. Flutterwave’s solutions are tailored to allow for banks and merchants alike replace multiple payment integrations with a straightforward API, enabling the processing of payment forms anywhere in Africa.
With the latest development also comes the joining of a new member to Flutterwave’s board of directors. The current chairman and general partner of Green Visor Capital, Joe Saunders, who is Visa chairman and CEO emeritus, has taken a seat in the fintech company’s roundtable of directors.
The name Aboyeji cannot be argued off as one of the biggest names in Nigeria’s tech universe, even as he exits the role a little over 2 years after he co-founded this payments solutions startup. This unforeseen split mirrors his 2016 exit firm Andela – a company that trains software developers in Africa and pairs them with tech firms. Andela said cheerio to the tech fever shortly after it raised USD 24 Mn in Series B led by the Chan Zuckerberg initiative.
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Flutterwave is one of the most revered startups in the fintech space of Africa, which has fast become a leading player in the aspect of online payments, processing 60 million transactions worth more than USD 2 Bn from global companies such as Uber, Booking.com, Jumia, Transferwise, and Flywire. The company has also strongly partnered with Ecobank, First Bank and Standard Bank.
Many may ask what’s next for Aboyeji. Well, he has been a serial entrepreneur since his undergraduate days, making it fair to assume that this will not be the last of his stints. This 27-year-old has said in a farewell tweet that he will spend his time pursuing family goals and consulting local startups. As his executive seat is being taken by cofounder Olugbenga Agboola, the entrepreneurial system of Nigeria is held from gasping, awaiting Aboyeji’s yet another dramatic business outplay. From Andela to Flutterwave, he has no doubt made great impact and henceforth will look to working with startups.
In a message, the new CEO wished Aboyeji good luck in his endeavors and expressed the moving forward excitement for the future of Flutterwave, as the new agenda is growing the company.
