附近上门

This week fintech company earned the rank of Africa鈥檚 highest-valued startup with a $3 billion valuation that came with a fresh $250 million Series D round of funding.

The news was certainly celebrated by the company, but also continent-wide, especially taken in the context of an overall rise in fintech funding to African startups.

In 2021, fintech companies headquartered in Africa raised $2 billion, per 附近上门 data. That contrasts with $230 million raised in 2020. (Worth noting however is that Flutterwave鈥檚 funding is not actually included in these numbers since it is technically headquartered in San Francisco much like fellow Africa-operating fintech company ).

San Francisco-headquartered and Lagos-based Flutterwave dominates the African payments space with its self-proclaimed mission to 鈥渃reate endless possibilities for customers and businesses in Africa and emerging markets.鈥�

The company got its start in 2016 and has consistently seen investor confidence through a total of $475 million in funding raises, according to 附近上门 data.

All Africa鈥檚 unicorns are private fintechs

Flutterwave鈥檚 place in the spotlight gives us an opportunity to look at other unicorns in Africa鈥檚 growing herd. The company leads a small group of African unicorns in the fintech space, including , and . In fact, all four of Africa鈥檚 unicorns are in the fintech space.

Flutterwave鈥檚 rise

Flutterwave CEO and founder is a Nigeria-born entrepreneur and graduate of the MBA program at .

Prior to Flutterwave, he worked as an application engineer at and in product management at .

At its core, Flutterwave offers a platform that enables cross-border transactions via one API. The company also recently launched an online marketplace and a remittance service that lets customers send money to and from Africa鈥攕trong forward moves for a company with consistent raises.

If anything, Flutterwave鈥檚 raise could signal growing investor confidence in the continent and specifically fintech overall. Its recent funding backers include a greatest-hits list as takes the lead, with participation from , and , according to the company.

Several existing investors who participated in previous rounds also joined this round, including, , , , and 1.

Check out Flutterwave on that raised the most funding in 2021.

Illustration: .