Flutterwave Named in the 2021 CB Insights Fintech 250 List of Top Fintech Startups

  • FinTech StartUps
  • 07.10.2021 03:45 pm

Flutterwave honored for achievements in Payments Processing

CB Insights today named Flutterwave in the fourth annual Fintech 250, a prestigious list of emerging private companies working on groundbreaking financial technology. This year’s list was unveiled on stage at CB Insights’ Future of Fintech conference in New York City.

This is the fourth class of the Fintech 250, and it’s also the most international, representing 26 countries.  These 250 fintech startups are attacking an incredibly diverse array of financial services opportunities across 19 sectors, including digital banking, insurance, payroll, retail investing, and more,” said CB Insights CEO Anand Sanwal. “After being named to the CB Insights Fintech 250 last year, the 2020 class saw 17 companies go public and 25 get acquired. They also went on to raise over $25B in additional financing and forged more than 380 new partnerships after being recognized. The Fintech 250 has a history of spotlighting the very best fintech companies, and this year is no different. We're excited to see how these fintech startups disrupt and transform financial services in the years ahead."

Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave, said: “We are thrilled to feature in such a reputable global list and to represent African fintech among exciting startups from all over the world. When Flutterwave was founded in 2016, the payments landscape in Africa was highly fragmented so we were aiming to build a platform that simplified payments for everyone. Now we have technology reach in 34 countries and serving over 300,000 businesses. Our mission is to take more businesses in Africa to the world, and at the same time continue to bring more of the world to Africa.”

Through an evidence-based approach, the CB Insights Intelligence Unit selected the Fintech 250 from a pool of over 17,000 companies, including applicants and nominees.They were chosen based on several factors, including data submitted by the companies, company business models and momentum in the market, and Mosaic scores, CB Insights’ proprietary algorithm that measures the overall health and growth potential of private companies.

Flutterwave was founded with the mission to create endless possibilities by simplifying payments for customers and businesses in Africa and the emerging markets. It enables its customers to build customisable payment applications through its APIs. Between 2018 and 2020 the company demonstrated  exceptional revenue growth of 226% CAGR. In 2021 the company announced its USD 170m Series C round, which valued Flutterwave at more than USD 1billion. The company is rapidly growing through partnerships. In 2021 Flutterwave announced its partnership with Paypal enabling PayPal customers globally to pay African merchants in the continent through Flutterwave’s platform. Since then Flutterwave has announced several partnerships with telecommunications companies— Airtel Africa and MTN, UK payments platform Currencycloud, US payments company Discover amongst others.

Fintech 250 2021: Investment Highlights

  • Unicorns: 118 of the 250 companies (47%) are valued at or above $1B as of their latest funding round
  • Funding trends: In 2021 year-to-date (YTD), these 250 private companies have raised $40.3B in equity funding across 275 deals (as of 9/14/21)
  • Mega-rounds: Since 2020, there have been 178 mega-round ($100M+) equity investments to this year’s Fintech 250, with 138 of them in 2021 YTD
  • Global representation: 36% of the 2021 Fintech 250 are based outside the US. After the US, the UK is home to the most Fintech 250 companies (25), followed by India (12). This year’s winners are based in 26 countries, including France, Brazil, Germany, Indonesia, and Nigeria.

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