Last month, Flutterwave became Africa’s highest-valued startup with a $3 billion valuation after raising $250 million in a Series D round of funding.
The six-year-old company started out as a payment processor, headquartered in San Francisco and based in Lagos. Over the years it’s grown to serve 900,000 businesses, with investors believing it’s building one of the most consequential fintech businesses in the world as Flutterwave expands its offering. For example, it launched a new remittance product last year, Send, for sending money to local bank accounts, mobile wallets, and cash pick-up locations across various countries around the world.
Ambitions reach beyond finance too with products like Flutterwave Grow, which provides business incorporation services. Flutterwave says it can help you can register a business in the US, UK, and Nigeria in 3 to 5 business days.
The funding announcement instigated recognition of funding growth for African fintech overall. Crunchbase data shows that Africa-headquartered fintech companies raised $2 billion in 2021, up from $230 million in 2020, and that doesn’t include Flutterwave since it’s based in the US.
Here are some of the latest startup fintech launches we’ve seen serving Africa.
- Bloom launched yesterday. It offers students and young professionals in East Africa US Dollar banking so they’re not subject to the volatility of their home currencies.
- OyaPay is a digital wallet platform for paying merchants, in-store and online, with your phones instead of cash or through a POS.
- Union54 is an API that helps makers build debit card issuing into their products.
- Suplias is a B2B marketplace for mom & pop stores to buy inventory. Maker Michael Adesanya wrote: “Building a product that allows African women with minimal/no formal education, like my mother, run their businesses conveniently and profitably."
- StartWeb Africa is a drag and drop website builder for building e-commerce stores in minutes.
With Flutterwave seriously shooting for the moon (its mission is “to create endless possibilities for customers and businesses in Africa and emerging markets”) and a ton of funds, expect acquisitions. More of them. The company already recently acquired Disha, another eCommerce store builder, and payment gateway CinetPay.
To dive more into Africa’s tech ecosystem, you can check out Built in Africa, a platform sharing stories and connecting African trailblazers.
3D designing can seem daunting. Golden Kitty Winner Spline, which earned over 2000 upvotes on its previous launch, is now introducing Spline Beta, with real-time collaboration to make designing in 3D more accessible.
The web-based tool uses a 2D approach to make your creations three-dimensional, allowing you to work with others in real-time and choose from hundreds of ready-to-use 3D objects.
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Bringing back some Foursquare nostalgia with Superlocal’s latest launch, but now you earn crypto and NFTs whenever you visit and check-in to places.
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Share your achieved milestones publicly with Timeline Builder. The maker’s looking for early feedback so try it out while you build in public and let them know what you think.
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Fleek enables retail stores and online resellers to buy from vintage clothing suppliers from around the world.
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Howdy helps you stay in touch with your loved ones through voice chat. Record yourself and Howdy will send both the audio and a transcript so friends can either listen or read.