San Francisco and Lagos-based Flutterwave has raised $35 million in Series B funding that CEO Olugbenga "GB" Agboola said will go directly towards expanding the fintech firm's presence in Africa.
"For the new capital, the goal is to pretty much double down on our expansion in Africa," Agboola told Cheddar.
The payment technology firm, which helps merchants and consumers process transactions online and at the point-of-sale, is banking on Africa's youth demographic to drive growth.
"If you look at Nigeria, for example, population is 200 million-plus people, average age is between 20 to 30 — that has been the driving force of our expansion strategy," Agboola said.
The company, which counts Uber and Booking.com among its clients, currently operates in Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa, and has plans to expand to Zambia, Malawi, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Morocco, and Egypt.
"Africa is a massive consumer of everything from the West," Agboola said.
He added that many young Africans subscribe to Netflix or Spotify and buy products like Apple AirPods. His goal is to better connect these consumers to the global market, and, on the flip side, make it easier for local merchants to sell their wares to anyone in the world.
Rather than entering one market at a time, Flutterwave is trying to quickly expand its footprint across the continent and become the payment option of choice for millions of young Africans.
"One big differentiator that we have is we see Africa as one market," Agboola said.
Partnerships with Visa and Worldpay have already helped Flutterwave expand its customer base globally. Now it plans to use the latest round of funding to hire additional business development staff and technology developers to lead the expansion into more countries.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
Elon Musk on Monday targeted Apple and OpenAI in an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the iPhone maker and the ChatGPT maker are teaming up to thwart competition in artificial intelligence.
Hear from Gabino & Stephen Roche on Saphyre’s institutional AI platform that centralizes pre‑ and post‑trade data, redefining settlement speed and accuracy.
Elon Musk’s X has reached a tentative settlement with former employees of the company then known as Twitter who’d sued for $500 million in severance pay.
