FLUTTERWAVE: SHAPING UP TO BE THE BEST ONLINE PAYMENT SOLUTION IN AFRICA


What is Flutterwave?

As a consumer and business owner in Nigeria, making and receiving payments online rather than the traditional way is rapidly being the norm for me, as it is safe, fast, secure and convenient. Being that there is a wide range of payment gateways to choose from I had to make proper research before making my choice. Flutterwave became my no 1 choice because the pricing and payment methods were favorable, I could carry out both local and international transactions and the security of my transactions were guaranteed.
Flutterwave really proved to be an online payment technology solution to my e-payment troubles.

In the spirit of innovative technology, Flutterwave has churned out a lot of ground breaking and creative products. It was founded in 2016 by Andela co-founder Iyinoluwa Aboyeji and a couple of other people, but recently leadership changed hands as a result of Iyinoluwa Aboyeji stepping down to pursue family goals, Flutterwave Co-founder Olugbenga Agboola replaced him as the new CEO.

Simply put, Flutterwave is a payment processor for African payments. From what I've seen it's not in direct competition with PayStack, SimplePay, VoguePay or any other online payment platform, rather It is for people who build payment solutions for other people. In this case, PayStack can use Flutterwave's API. Flutterwave puts all payment services from different gateways including mobile money, credit cards and places them under one platform. They help businesses all over the world to facilitate their payments like a local African company. Existing customers include Uber, TransferWise, Thrivesend, Flywire, Booking.com and Africa's number one e-commerce website, Jumia.com.


FLUTTERWAVE PRODUCTS


Rave(Flutterwave for Business):

This is a Flutterwave product I have a personal experience with. While searching for a payment gateway for my e-commerce website, I came across several online payment solutions but they all required a registered business account which I didn't have, then i discovered Flutterwave's Rave and all my problems were solved. For a freelancer, entrepreneur or unregistered business, all you need is your name, name and address of business, website url, email, phone no and Voila!, your Rave business account is opened. It is simple to use and totally Free.

Rave by Flutterwave is a service that enables merchants accept global payments from Mastercard, Visa and Verve cards, bank accounts and USSD across Africa and around the world. Another wonderful feature is that it enables over 200 million PayPal users from around the world to pay businesses using Rave. This new feature is huge for businesses in Nigeria using Rave to accept payments from a global customer base because Naira, the official currency of Nigeria, is currently not supported. Paypal being on board is a big deal because it is trusted by millions of customers and merchants around the world and this is why I think this feature is one of a kind for any business accepting payments with Rave. As with everything Flutterwave, the payments experience is super simple and secure for both business and customer.

GetBarter(Flutterwave for Consumers):

I got familiar with this Flutterwave's product during the HNG 6.0 internship, it was the online payment platform employed to pay interns. I had to download the GetBarter app, register and create a GetBarter account and logging in to my account, I discovered how awesome it is, I could practically use it to pay my tv bills, buy airtime, send and request money from my friends, family and customers. For me there's no alternative to Flutterwave's GetBarter, because it really met all my payment needs.

GetBarter is a consumer payment product for Africa that was launched from a partnership between Visa and Flutterwave. The app-based offering is aimed at facilitating personal and small merchant payments within countries like Nigeria and across Africa’s national borders. Existing Visa cardholders can send and receive funds at home or internationally on GetBarter.

Another fantastic feature of this product is that, even if you don't have an ATM card but you have accounts or mobile wallets on other platforms, you can create a virtual Visa card and link those accounts to the app. GetBarter has allowed Flutterwave — which has progressed as a payment gateway for big companies through its Rave product — to capture the heart of African consumers and traders.


Achievements So Far:


Even though Flutterwave is still in its early years, it has proven that it is here to stay. With a couple of awards under its belt (one of which is the recent 'Best Payments Company’ award at the Ghana eCommerce Awards ceremony), it has shown that Flutterwave's products are both locally and internationally recognized.

Flutterwave has positioned itself as a world class business to business payments solutions platform for companies in Africa, to pay and receive from other companies on the continent and abroad. One of its major advantages is that customers and clients can make use of its APIs with the help of Flutterwave developers to customize their payments applications.

According to company data, Flutterwave has processed over 100 million transactions worth $2.6 billion since it began operations. The company has raised $20 million from different investors, among which are Mastercard, Green Visor Capital and Greycroft. They began operations in Uganda in June and in October, it raised $10 million in Series A round (a class of stock sold to investors and venture capital companies in exchange for their investments) which also signaled the appointment of former Visa CEO, Joe Saunders as one of the board of directors.

Although, Flutterwave is headquartered in San Francisco, it has its largest operations center in Nigeria. They have also started up plans to add operations centers in South Africa, Cameroon, and even China and India, I know this will definitely become new markets for Flutterwave products and platforms.

Final Words:

The world keeps growing and technology is at the forefront of it.

Flutterwave is on a mission to diversify how the world does business with Africa by linking every African to the global economy.