Flutterwave, Africa’s largest fintech firm, has acquired Nigerian open banking startup Mono in an all-stock transaction valued between $25 million and $40 million.
The acquisition brings collectively two main fintech infrastructure gamers as Flutterwave seems to be to strengthen its funds stack with open banking, knowledge, and identification capabilities.
Beneath the deal, Mono will proceed to function as an unbiased product, with no adjustments to its management or operations.
The transaction permits Mono’s buyers to not less than recoup their capital, with some early backers reportedly recording returns of as much as 20x.
Flutterwave disclosed that Mono’s platform supplies safe entry to {financial} knowledge, identification verification, and account-to-account cost companies—capabilities more and more seen as vital as African markets transfer towards authenticated and bank-based cost strategies.
Talking on the acquisition, Flutterwave’s Founder and CEO, Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, stated the deal displays the corporate’s long-term view of Africa’s {financial} infrastructure.
“Funds, knowledge, and belief can’t exist in silos. Open banking supplies the connective tissue, and Mono has constructed vital infrastructure on this house. This acquisition permits us to broaden what’s attainable for companies working throughout African markets, whereas staying grounded in safety, compliance, and native relevance,” Agboola stated.
Mono’s Founder and CEO, Abdulhamid Hassan, famous that the acquisition builds on an present relationship between each corporations, which started with a partnership in 2021.
“Mono’s capabilities throughout {financial} knowledge entry, direct {bank} funds, and identification verification, mixed with Flutterwave’s unmatched scale and world attain, create one thing extra defensible and complete,” Hassan acknowledged.
Flutterwave stated the combination of Mono’s open banking APIs will strengthen its potential to assist sooner service provider onboarding, improved verification processes, diminished fraud, and seamless account-to-account funds throughout a number of African markets.
Africa’s fintech ecosystem is more and more shifting away from card-dominated cost methods towards bank-based, authenticated, and various cost strategies.
Open banking is rising as a vital enabler of this transition, supporting trusted knowledge sharing, account-to-account funds, and new {financial} merchandise.
By buying Mono, Flutterwave is positioning itself to play a extra central function in shaping this subsequent part of Africa’s funds development, notably as demand rises for interoperable methods that may assist scale, compliance, and innovation throughout borders.
Open banking stays at an early stage in lots of African markets, however is more and more considered as foundational infrastructure for fintech innovation, various funds, and future use instances akin to open banking-enabled digital property and stablecoins.
Talking in a current interview with Nairametrics, Mono CEO, Abdulhamid Hassan, shared how he left Paystack to ascertain Mono in 2020.
Again then, open banking was not but a buzzword in Nigeria, however Hassan noticed what others didn’t: that knowledge, not simply funds, would energy the subsequent era of fintech.
In accordance with him, 5 years later, Mono has processed over 150 billion transactions by its platform, served greater than 7 million customers, and expanded into Kenya and Ghana.
