flutterwave News of 06/01/20

Africa Roundup: Visa Connects To M-Pesa, Flutterwave Enters E-Commerce

It seems the demand for Safaricom’s M-Pesa payment product never eases. Since its 2007 launch in Kenya, the fintech app has commanded over 70% of the mobile money market in that country. When COVID-19 hit the East African nation of 53 ...

Visa’S Africa Strategy Banks On Startup Partnerships

Visa has prioritized growth in Africa, and partnering with startups is central to its strategy. This became obvious in 2019 after the global financial services giant entered a series of collaborations on the continent, but Visa confirmed it in ...

Visa Partners With Paga On Payments And Fintech For Africa And Abroad

Visa has entered a partnership with Nigeria based startup Paga on payments and technology. Founded in Lagos, Paga scaled its fintech business in West Africa, before targeting expansion in Ethiopia and Mexico. The startup has created a ...

Nigeria Is Becoming Africa’S Unofficial Tech Capital

Africa has one of the world’s fastest growing tech markets and Nigeria is becoming its unofficial capital. While the West African nation is commonly associated with negative cliches around corruption and terrorism — which persist as serious ...

Trump’S Travel Ban Could Extend To Africa’S Top Tech Country, Nigeria

The Trump administration is poised to add several African countries to a U.S. travel ban list, including Africa’s top tech hub, Nigeria. Politico first reported the White House is considering Tanzania, Eritrea, Sudan and Nigeria for new ...

African Fintech Firm Flutterwave Raises $35m, Partners With Worldpay

San Francisco and Lagos-based fintech startup  Flutterwave has raised a $35 million Series B round and announced a partnership with Worldpay FIS for payments in Africa. With the funding, Flutterwave will invest in technology and business ...

Jumia, DHL, And Alibaba Will Face Off In African Ecommerce 2.0

The business of selling consumer goods and services online is a relatively young endeavor across Africa, but ecommerce is set to boom. Over the last eight years, the sector has seen its first phase of big VC fundings, startup duels and attrition. ...

2019 Africa Roundup: Jumia IPOs, China Goes Digital, Nigeria Becomes Fintech Capital

2019 brought more global attention to Africa’s tech scene than perhaps any previous year. A high profile IPO, visits by both Jacks (Ma and Dorsey), and big Chinese startup investment energized that. The last 12 months served as a grande ...

China’S Growing Digital Influence In Africa

There’s been a heap of China in Africa coverage over the last decade, but very little of it is focused on tech. In part, because the country’s engagement with African startups is light compared to its deal-making on infrastructure and commodities. ...

SF Based African Fintech Startup Chipper Cash Expands To Nigeria

The African no-fee, cross-border payment startup  Chipper Cash has expanded to Nigeria. The San Francisco based startup, with offices in Ghana and Kenya, will offer its P2P payment service and app in Africa’s most populous nation in ...

Update On Nigerian Fintech Firm Interswitch And Its Speculative IPO

Nigerian fintech firm Interswitch has been circulating in business news around a possible IPO on the London Stock Exchange. Last month Bloomberg News ran a story —based on unnamed sources—reporting the financial services firm had hired ...

What Is Andela, The Africa Tech Talent Accelerator?

As someone who covers Africa’s tech scene, I’m frequently asked about Andela . That’s not surprising, given the venture gets more global press (arguably) than any startup in Africa. I’ve found many Silicon Valley ...

Africa Roundup: Canal+ Acquires ROK, Flutterwave And Alipay Partner, OPay Raises $50m

in July, French television company Canal+  acquired the ROK film studio from VOD company IROKOtv. Canal+ would not disclose the acquisition price, but confirmed there was a cash component of the deal. Founded by  Jason Njoku   in 2010 — ...

Visa Pitches A Program Offering Fintechs Faster Market Access Through An Ecosystem Of Partners

Visa is pitching a new way for startups in the fintech space to get to market faster by using its rails and a group of pre-approved partners. The Fast Track program, a variant of an investment commitment and ecosystem of services the company has ...

Flutterwave And Alipay Partner On Payments Between Africa And China

San Francisco and Lagos based fintech startup Flutterwave has partnered with Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba to offer digital payments between Alipay and African merchants. Flutterwave is a Nigerian founded B2B payments service ...

Getaround, Facebook, AI Chips, Nvidia, Africa, And Immigration

Who helped your startup grow? Nominate a growth marketing agency. For those who have been members of Extra Crunch for a while now, you have seen us go through two cycles of Verified Experts , covering startup attorneys and brand designers. Now, we ...

These Startups Are Locating In SF And Africa To Win In Global Fintech

To become a global fintech player, locate your company in San Francisco and Africa. That’s the approach of payments company Flutterwave, digital lending startup Mines , and mobile-money venture Chipper Cash —Africa-founded ventures that ...

Chipper Cash Convinces Joe Montana To Invest In African Fintech

The African no-fee, cross-border payment startup Chipper Cash has raised a $2.4 million seed round led by Deciens Capital . The payments company also persuaded 500 Startups and Liquid 2 Ventures —co-founded by Joe Montana—to join the ...

Africa Roundup: Kenya’S BRCK Acquires EveryLayer, Nigeria’S TeamApt Eyes Global Expansion

Kenyan   communications hardware company  BRCK acquired the assets of Nairobi based internet provider  Surf  and its U.S. parent  EveryLayer in a purchase deal of an undisclosed amount in February. Based in Nairobi, Surf is a hotspot ...

Nigerian Fintech Firm TeamApt Raises $5m, Eyes Global Expansion

Nigerian fintech startup TeamApt has raised $5.5 million in capital in a Series A round led by Quantum Capital Partners. The Lagos based firm will use the funds to expand its white label digital finance products and pivot to consumer finance with ...