Flutterwave, The Only African Startup To Make The CNBC Disruptor 50 List

CNBC’s ninth annual Disruptor 50 list is here and Nigeria’s Flutterwave made it on the list.

The fintech startup is the only African startup to have made it on the list amongst giants like Stripe, Airtable, Clubhouse, and Robinhood.

The CNBC Disruptor list is a group of private companies leading out of the pandemic with business models and growth rates aligned with a rapid pace of technological change.

Independently-owned companies founded after Jan 1, 2006, were eligible to be nominated for the Disruptor 50 list. Companies nominated were required to submit a detailed analysis, including key quantitative and qualitative information.

“Quantitative metrics included company-submitted data on workforce size and diversity, scalability, and sales and user growth,” the statement read.

These companies have become critical players in fundamental economic and consumer transformations. A majority of them own billion-dollar businesses with thirty-four disruptors being unicorns.

Flutterwave, recently named a unicorn was founded in 2016 by Olugbenga Agboola. The fintech startup provides a variety of payment services to African businesses through its digital infrastructure and API software.

The fintech company started in San Francisco, but after taking part in the prestigious start-up accelerator YCombinator, set up its operational headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria. Five years later, Flutterwave says it has processed over 140 million transactions that amount to $6 billion in payments worldwide.

During the pandemic, Flutterwave devised an e-commerce platform to enable businesses to set up their shops online, with payments and delivery services integrated.

Now operating in more than 15 countries, about 290,000 businesses use the platform in operations, including Facebook and Netflix.

Flutterwave was also featured as a Pioneer in the TIME 100 most influential companies list, which had tech giants like Apple, Twitter, and Stripe.