Cross-Border Payments Fintech Flutterwave Acquires Open Banking Firm Mono

Flutterwave has agreed to amass Mono, bringing open banking capabilities totally in-house because it pushes towards a extra interoperable monetary infrastructure throughout Africa.

The deal permits Flutterwave to natively combine monetary knowledge entry, id verification, and account-to-account funds.

Monetary phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Cross-border funds firm Flutterwave revealed it has agreed to amass Mono, a fellow Africa-based fintech targeted on offering open banking instruments. Monetary phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed.

For Flutterwave, investing in open banking applied sciences exhibits that it’s dedicated to constructing an interoperable monetary system for Africa. Whereas Flutterwave initially partnered with Mono in 2022, the acquisition will enable the corporate to completely combine Mono’s API-driven open banking components. The native integration will provide customers safe entry to monetary knowledge, id verification, and account-to-account funds. It would additionally create a transparent path for increasing into richer various cost strategies, authenticated cost flows, and open banking-enabled stablecoin use instances.

“This acquisition displays how we take into consideration the way forward for monetary infrastructure in Africa,” stated Flutterwave Founder and CEO Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola. “Funds, knowledge, and belief can not exist in silos. Open banking offers the connective tissue, and Mono has constructed vital infrastructure on this area. This acquisition permits us to increase what’s attainable for companies working throughout African markets, whereas staying grounded in safety, compliance, and native relevance.”

Mono was based in 2020 to offer monetary knowledge, id verification, and direct financial institution funds for companies. With 5 million linked accounts throughout greater than 500 banks and fintechs, the Lagos-based fintech covers three completely different international locations.

“Mono’s capabilities throughout monetary knowledge entry, direct financial institution funds, and id verification, mixed with Flutterwave’s unmatched scale and world attain, create one thing extra defensible and complete,” stated Mono Founder and CEO Abdulhamid Hassan. “This acquisition permits us to construct the infrastructure layer that powers the subsequent technology of African fintech on the pace and scale the continent deserves.”

As soon as the acquisition is finalized, Mono will proceed to function independently with its management construction intact. Mono will even retain operational management, which can enable it to keep up its tempo of innovation.

Flutterwave accepts funds in additional than 30 currencies, processing a median of 500,000 funds every day. Along with its funds know-how, Flutterwave additionally presents invoicing know-how, enterprise loans, and analytics instruments. Because it was based in 2016, Flutterwave has raised greater than $470 million and has processed over one billion transactions in extra of $40 billion.

The transfer positions Flutterwave towards full-stack monetary infrastructure. It additionally displays a broader business shift towards open banking–enabled cost flows, the place verified knowledge and authenticated transfers cut back fraud, enhance conversion, and unlock new use instances. For Africa’s fragmented monetary ecosystem, tighter integration between funds and knowledge infrastructure has the potential to spice up interoperability whereas giving cross-border cost gamers like Flutterwave larger management over compliance, reliability, and product velocity.

Picture by Muhammad-Taha Ibrahim

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