• Tech start-up vies with Zoom in $75b virtual meeting market
A Nigerian and U.S.-based payments company launched in 2016, Flutterwave recently raised $170 million and is now valued at over $1 billion, while Bankly, a 2018 Nigerian fintech startup digitizing cash for the unbanked, the informal thrift collections system known in local parlance as esusu or ajo, just closed a $2 million seed round. This is on the heels of the purchase of another Nigerian payments company Paystack, by global fintech giant, Stripe for $200 million.
The current global crisis due largely to COVID-19 has compelled companies to come up with innovative solutions that will allow employees to work without being afraid of contracting the virus. Attributed to this, several businesses have now adopted the work-from-home model, thereby allowing people to avoid unnecessary travel. It has further been found that employees who work remotely can work for an additional 1.4 days per month, as compared to normal working situation.
An Economist Intelligence report revealed that Nigerian fintechs are branching out from payments into lending, micro-investment, wealth management, peer-to-peer transfers and insurance. Olaegbe revealed that the most recent unicorn is Flutterwave, whose valuation was aided by its third round fund raising. Flutterwave raised $170 million. He said Avenir Growth Capital and Tiger Global are the two firms backing AFrica fintech firms, which made it happen for Flutterwave.