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Flutterwave Bets on Open Banking as Africa’s Next Payments Frontier
Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company, has acquired Mono, a pioneer in open banking infrastructure, in a strategic move that positions open banking as a core pillar of the continent’s evolving financial ecosystem. The deal deepens Flutterwave’s long-term commitment to building a connected, interoperable, and trusted financial system across Africa—shifting the focus from card-led rails to bank-based, authenticated payment methods.
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Under the terms of the transaction, Mono will continue to operate independently, with no changes to its leadership, team, or daily operations. Flutterwave’s investment enables strategic alignment rather than operational control—allowing Mono to maintain its innovation pace while contributing critical open banking capabilities to Flutterwave’s expanding payments platform.
Why This Deal Matters for Africa’s Digital Economy
Africa’s payments landscape is rapidly evolving. As markets demand faster onboarding, stronger verification, and lower fraud, open banking is emerging as the connective tissue between payments, data, and trust.
Mono’s API-driven platform enables:
- Secure access to financial data
- Identity and account verification
- Account-to-account payments
By integrating these capabilities, Flutterwave strengthens its ability to deliver seamless alternative payment methods, authenticated payment flows, and, over time, open banking-enabled stablecoin use cases—placing the company at the heart of Africa’s next fintech growth phase.
Beyond Payments: Building a Full-Stack Financial Infrastructure
The acquisition carries implications that go well beyond product expansion:
- For businesses: Simplified compliance-heavy processes like KYC, bank verification, and identity checks—boosting conversion and reliability at scale.
- For developers and partners: A unified environment where payments and financial data coexist, reducing complexity and speeding time to market.
- For regulators: Greater standardization, stronger data protection, and adherence to global security frameworks such as PCI-DSS and ISO 27001.
Together, Flutterwave and Mono create a deeper, more defensible infrastructure stack—enhancing margins, platform stickiness, and long-term value creation.
Leadership Perspectives: A Shared Vision for Trust and Interoperability
Commenting on the acquisition, Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave, said:
“Payments, data, and trust cannot exist in silos. Open banking provides the connective tissue, and Mono has built critical infrastructure in this space. This acquisition expands what’s possible for businesses across African markets—while staying grounded in security, compliance, and local relevance.”
Abdulhamid Hassan, Founder and CEO of Mono, added:
“We built Mono to unlock Africa’s open banking potential. Combining our capabilities in financial data, direct bank payments, and identity verification with Flutterwave’s unmatched scale creates an infrastructure layer for the next generation of African fintech—at the speed and scale the continent deserves.”
Two Infrastructure Giants, One Interoperable Vision
Flutterwave operates one of Africa’s broadest payments networks, enabling local and cross-border transactions across 30+ countries. Mono—often described as the Plaid for Africa—provides APIs that allow businesses to access bank data, verify customers, initiate payments, and assess financial behaviour with user consent.
With this acquisition, Flutterwave can now offer:
- Payments and collections
- Customer onboarding and identity verification
- Bank account validation
- Data-driven risk assessment
—all within a single technology stack.
Powering Nigeria’s Credit-Led Fintech Wave
Founded in 2020, Mono has become core infrastructure for Nigeria’s digital lending ecosystem, where limited credit bureau coverage means lenders rely heavily on bank transaction histories to assess creditworthiness.
The company reports:
- 8+ million bank account linkages
- Coverage of roughly 12% of Nigeria’s banked population
- 100+ billion financial data points delivered to lenders
- Millions of dollars processed in direct bank payments
Its customers include Moniepoint and PalmPay, while investors have included Tiger Global, General Catalyst, and Target Global. Sources close to the deal say all investors recouped their capital. Some early backers achieved returns of up to 20x, a rare outcome in Africa’s challenging funding climate.
A Strategic Push for Stronger Unit Economics
For Flutterwave, the deal represents a decisive move toward vertical integration at a time when fintechs are under pressure to prove stronger unit economics and broader product relevance. By embedding open banking features inclduing income verification, account ownership checks, and recurring bank payments, Flutterwave enhances both its revenue resilience and platform differentiation.
Hassan framed the move as timely:
“Africa is entering a credit-driven phase. To make that work, you need deep data intelligence to understand how people earn and spend—and regulators must be confident that customer funds and data are safe.”
The Road Ahead: Open by Design, Built for Trust
As Africa’s digital economy demands infrastructure that is open by design, interoperable by default, and anchored in trust, Flutterwave’s acquisition of Mono signals a clear direction for the future of fintech on the continent. A future where payments, data, and identity work seamlessly together to unlock inclusive growth.
The transaction was advised by Nichole Yembra, Founder and Managing Partner at The Chrysalis Advisors Africa, who supported strategic positioning and execution.
