Flutterwave Deepens Grip on African Fintech with $40m Acquisition of Mono
In a landmark development for the African financial technology landscape, Flutterwave, the continent’s most valuable fintech startup, has acquired Mono, a Nigerian open banking company, in a deal valued at up to $40 million (N38 billion).
The all-stock transaction represents a significant consolidation of power within the African fintech ecosystem, merging Flutterwave’s formidable payment processing capabilities with Mono’s advanced data infrastructure. The move is widely seen as a strategic pivot for Flutterwave, positioning it to dominate the emerging era of “Open Banking” in Africa, where financial data access is becoming as critical as transaction processing.
According to a report by Nairametrics, the acquisition deal is valued between $25 million and $40 million. Under the terms of the agreement, Mono will retain its brand identity and continue to operate as an independent product, with its current leadership team remaining at the helm. This structure suggests Flutterwave is keen to preserve the agility and specialized focus that made Mono a rising star in the tech space.
A Strategic Convergence of Payments and Data
For industry observers, the acquisition is a logical evolution for Flutterwave. Founded in 2016, the company has built its reputation on facilitating cross-border payments for global enterprises like Uber and Booking.com, achieving a valuation north of $3 billion. However, as the African market matures, the battleground is shifting from simple payments to comprehensive financial data services—a domain where Mono excels.
Mono, founded in 2020 by Abdulhamid Hassan and Prakhar Singh, provides the “connective tissue” for the digital economy. Its Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) allow businesses to access customer financial data (with permission), verify identities, and initiate account-to-account payments. These capabilities are crucial for lending apps to assess creditworthiness, for wealth management apps to track assets, and for businesses to onboard customers securely.
In a statement cited by Nairametrics, Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave, emphasized that the deal was driven by a long-term vision for Africa’s financial infrastructure.
“Payments, data, and trust cannot exist in silos. Open banking provides the connective tissue, and Mono has built critical infrastructure in this space,” Agboola stated. “This acquisition allows us to expand what’s possible for businesses operating across African markets, while staying grounded in security, compliance, and local relevance.”
The “Connective Tissue” of African Fintech
The integration of Mono’s technology is expected to unlock significant operational synergies for Flutterwave. By leveraging Mono’s open banking APIs, Flutterwave can offer its merchants faster onboarding processes, robust identity verification (KYC), and reduced fraud rates. Furthermore, it enables seamless account-to-account payments, a method that is gaining traction across the continent as a cost-effective alternative to card payments.
Abdulhamid Hassan, Mono’s CEO and a former Product Manager at Paystack, highlighted the complementary nature of the union. He noted that the partnership between the two firms actually dates back to 2021.
“Mono’s capabilities across financial data access, direct bank payments, and identity verification, combined with Flutterwave’s unmatched scale and global reach, create something more defensible and comprehensive,” Hassan said.
For Mono, which is an alumnus of the prestigious Y Combinator accelerator, the deal offers a lucrative exit for its early investors. Nairametrics reports that some early backers are set to realize returns of up to 20 times their initial investment—a rare and encouraging win in a venture capital climate that has faced a “funding winter” globally over the last two years.
The Rise of Open Banking in Africa
The acquisition comes at a time when Open Banking is moving from a buzzword to a regulatory reality in Nigeria. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been actively working on frameworks to standardize how banks share data with third-party providers. This regulatory push is designed to foster innovation and financial inclusion by breaking the monopoly banks traditionally held over customer data.
By acquiring Mono, Flutterwave effectively fast-tracks its compliance and capability in this regulated space. Instead of building these complex data pipes from scratch, it has bought a market leader that has already processed over 150 million transactions and serves more than 7 million users across Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya.
This trend mirrors global patterns where payment giants acquire data aggregators to secure their position in the value chain. A parallel can be drawn to Visa’s attempt to acquire Plaid in the United States for $5.3 billion (though blocked by regulators) and Mastercard’s successful acquisition of Finicity. In Africa, the Flutterwave-Mono deal signals that major players are preparing for a future where data intelligence is just as valuable as the transaction fee itself.
Market Implications and Competitive Landscape
The deal is likely to send ripples through the competitive landscape, particularly for rivals like Paystack (acquired by Stripe in 2020). While Paystack has largely focused on mastering payments, Flutterwave’s expansion into data services creates a more vertically integrated “super-infrastructure.”
For developers and startups building on these platforms, the consolidation promises a more unified experience. Instead of juggling multiple vendors for payments, identity verification, and data access, they may soon be able to access a holistic suite of services under the Flutterwave umbrella.
“From a regulatory perspective, the deal supports increased standardization, improved data protection, and compliance with global security standards such as PCI-DSS and ISO 27001,” Nairametrics noted in its report. This is particularly vital as African tech companies face increasing scrutiny regarding data privacy and cybersecurity.
A Win for the Ecosystem
Beyond the corporate strategy, the acquisition is a morale booster for the Nigerian tech ecosystem. In recent years, the narrative has often been dominated by stories of startups struggling to raise funds or shutting down. A successful exit of this magnitude validates the thesis that African startups can build world-class infrastructure and deliver real returns to investors.
Abdulhamid Hassan’s journey from a Paystack employee to the founder of a company acquired by Africa’s most valuable unicorn is a testament to the maturation of the local talent pool. In a recent interview, Hassan reflected on his foresight in 2020, realizing that “data, not just payments, would power the next generation of fintech.”
As the integration proceeds, all eyes will be on how Flutterwave leverages this new asset. If successful, the combined entity could redefine what it means to be a fintech company in Africa—moving beyond simply moving money to understanding the financial life of the user behind the transaction.
