Posted In:

Flutterwave, Emerging Markets, Payments, Africa


Flutterwave and Visa Partner on Consumer Payments App Barter

Published:

Jan 16, 2019


Source:

Posted In:

Flutterwave, Emerging Markets, Payments, Africa

Published:

Jan 16, 2019


Source:


Share:

Fintech startup Flutterwave has partnered with Visa to launch a consumer payment product for Africa called GetBarter.

The app-based offering is aimed at facilitating personal and small merchant payments within countries and across Africa’s national borders. Existing Visa cardholders can send and receive funds at home or internationally on GetBarter.

The product also lets non-cardholders (those with accounts or mobile wallets on other platforms) create a virtual Visa card to link to the app. A Visa spokesperson confirmed the product partnership.

GetBarter allows Flutterwave — which has scaled as a payment gateway for big companies through its Rave product — to pivot to African consumers and traders.

“Rave is B2B, this is more B2B2C since we’re reaching the consumers of our customers,” Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola — aka GB — told TechCrunch.

The app also creates a network for clients on multiple financial platforms, such as Kenyan mobile money service M-Pesa, to make transfers across payment products and national borders, and to shop online.

“The target market is pretty much everyone who has a payment need in Africa. That includes the entire customer base of M-Pesa, the entire bank customer base in Nigeria, mobile money and bank customers in Ghana — pretty much the entire continent,” Agboola said.

Flutterwave and Visa will focus on building a GetBarter user base across mobile money and bank clients in Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa, with plans to grow across the continent and reach those off the financial grid.

“In phase one we’ll pursue those who are banked. In phase two we’ll continue toward those who are unbanked who will be able to use agents to work with GetBarter,” Agboola said.

Flutterwave and Visa will generate revenue through fees from financial institutions on cards created and on fees per transaction. A GetBarter charge for a payment in Nigeria is roughly 40 Naira, or 11 cents, according to Agboola.

With this week’s launch users can download the app for Apple and Android devices and for use on WhatsApp and USSD.

Founded in 2016, Flutterwave has positioned itself as a global B2B payments solutions platform for companies in Africa to pay other companies on the continent and abroad. It allows clients to tap its APIs and work with Flutterwave developers to customize payments applications. Existing customers include Uber, Facebook, Booking.com and African e-commerce unicorn Jumia.com.

Flutterwave has processed 100 million transactions worth $2.6 billion since inception, according to company data.

The company has raised $20 million from investors, including Greycroft, Green Visor Capital and Mastercard.

In 2018, Flutterwave was one of several African fintech companies to announce significant VC investment and cross-border expansion — see Paga, Yoco, Cellulant, Mines.ie and Jumo.

Flutterwave added operations in Uganda in June and raised a $10 million Series A round in October that saw former Visa CEO Joe Saunders join its board of directors.

The company also plugged into ledger activity in 2018, becoming a payment processing partner to the Ripple and Stellar blockchain networks.

Flutterwave hasn’t yet released revenue or profitability info, according to CEO Olugbenga Agboola.

Headquartered in San Francisco, with its largest operations center in Nigeria, the startup plans to add operations centers in South Africa and Cameroon, which will also become new markets for GetBarter.

Rave is B2B, this is more B2B2C since we’re reaching the consumers of our customers.

Olugbenga Agboola, Flutterwave CEO

Share:

Previous Article:
Contabilizei Raises $20 Million to Ease Brazilians’ Tax Pain
Next Article:
FTC Alert | A Banker and a Gambler Walk into a Bar...
The views expressed here are those of the individual FinTech Collective LLC (together with its affiliates “FTC”) personnel quoted and are not the views of FTC or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by FTC. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, FTC has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. In addition, this content may include third-party advertisements; FTC has not reviewed such advertisements and does not endorse any advertising content contained therein.

Any designations found herein have been made by a third party, and although FTC has no reason to believe that such designations, or the criteria for being considered for such designations, are inaccurate or misleading, FTC does not guarantee its accuracy, and such designations may be incomplete or condensed. No compensation was paid in exchange for any designations, endorsements, or testimonials found herein. The hyperlinks referred to herein are provided for your reference only.

This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. This content does not constitute an offering or form part of any offering or any solicitation of any offer to subscribe to or purchase any investment by FTC, nor shall it or the fact of its distribution form the basis of, or be relied upon in connection with any contract therefore. Any such offer will be made only by means of definitive investment offering documents. The information included herein is subject to change without notice to any recipient. Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by FTC, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by FTC (excluding investments for which the issuer has not provided permission for FTC to disclose publicly as well as unannounced investments in publicly traded digital assets) is available at https://www.fintech.io/portfolio and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://www.fintech.io/disclosures for additional important information.