By In a recent blog post shared on Flutterwave’s site, CEO and founder Olugbenga Agboola reflected on the company’s ongoing mission to unlock payment opportunities for individuals, small businesses, emerging markets, and startups.
“When I think of our journey and 2023, I reflect on the grace that we have received at different inflection points to propel, steady, and focus us,” Agboola said. “Despite a challenging macroeconomic environment that has seemingly persisted for a while, we persevered, created, failed, succeeded, learnt, and we gained clarity.”
The company also enhanced its Send App — which helps people in the U.K., U.S., Canada, Europe, and various African countries send money to other African countries — with better rates, an updated look, and faster functionality.
Flutterwave established a number of relationships last year that have helped further its goal of providing Africans with greater access to the global payment system and the ability to pay and receive funds digitally.
In the summer of 2023, the company announced collaborations with music-streaming and discovery platform Audiomack and the International Air Transport Association — which Agboola said were indicative of Flutterwave’s commitment to enabling easy expansion of multinationals into Africa.
Its partnership with Audiomack allows the platform to provide premium music experiences and new fee-based features for its customers and artists using Flutterwave’s seamless and secure payment processing capabilities.
Flutterwave’s integration with the IATA’s payment platform has helped facilitate 290 international airlines being able to process card, bank transfer, mobile money, and other payment methods that are available on Flutterwave, and Africans can pay for international flights using their local currency.
Flutterwave is now working with European payment infrastructure provider Token.io to offer bank account-to-account payment services to Flutterwave customers. The company also obtained an International Money Transfer Operator license in Malawi and money transmitter licenses in 13 U.S. states last year, enabling faster, more affordable and secure money transfers between the U.S. and Africa.
To support its risk and compliance strategy efforts, Flutterwave also added dedicated team members in strategic markets and regions and hired its first-ever chief risk officer, as well as new leadership for the company’s data, product, sales, strategy, marketing, expansions, and partnerships teams.
Senior executives from regulatory bodies and prominent companies such as PayPal, American Express, Western Union, and Square, were brought on board in 2023.
In addition to expanding its team of professionals, Flutterwave sponsored a number of employee-oriented initiatives, including an engineering mobility program, which transported 22 of the company’s engineers from Lagos, Nigeria, to India through a knowledge and skills exchange initiative that was facilitated by consulting and technology services provider Capgemini.
Flutterwave has also invested in its talent through its career progression framework and related online learning resources, which help guide employees through a career advancement road map from entry-level analyst and engineer 1 roles to senior vice president.
The career progression framework outlines the skill set and experience needed for employees to progress to senior and leadership roles in simple and straightforward terms.
Flutterwave Looking Ahead
While overall, the economic climate made 2023 a challenging year for the company, Olugbenga Agboola said he’s glad Flutterwave remained resilient.
Flutterwave increased its customer base for both business and retail products by over 160% last year.
“We’re proud of the team we’ve built at Flutterwave — everyone who has passed through has contributed greatly to this goal and we are grateful for their sacrifice,” he wrote in his March blog post. “I am also confident that we will be ready for the opportunities ahead.”
Flutterwave has already debuted new features in 2024, including the ability to process payments for Travelwings, an online travel agency that operates in more than 100 destinations worldwide.
In the post Olugbenga Agboola shared on Flutterwave’s site, he also said the company plans to increase its focus on servicing the enterprise segment for its key markets — part of its intent to enable multinational companies to expand into African countries, creating alternative sources of income and potentially contributing to growth on the continent in all sectors.
Flutterwave — which Fast Company named No. 1 in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa category on its innovative Companies List — also hopes to expand its reach in North America, the Middle East, and Asia in the future.
“Every day, we come to work, and we live and breathe innovation,” Olugbenga Agboola said. “We’ve since built out Africa’s biggest payment network by reach, created solutions that make payments solutions, currency exchanges, e-commerce, and remittances easier for global companies selling in Africa, local businesses, and Africans alike. We will continue to nurture a DNA of innovation as we simplify payments for endless possibilities.”
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[EB1] This happened in June and July, respectively.
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