The African economy is growing very fast. According to the findings from IMF’s World Economic Outlook Report, 11 of the 25 fastest growing economies in the world are in African countries! There is a particular emphasis on the emergence of the financial technology sector
The under development of the financial service industry in Africa’s poses a very tough, important and widespread problem of payments across the continent. After more than 50 years of banking on the continent, only roughly about 34 percent of adults in sub-Saharan Africa have bank accounts or access to formal financial services.
It is clear the traditional model of banking is too slow, inflexible and incapable of spreading financial access across the continent, and so making payments across globally is proves even more difficult
Fortunately, with the spread of mobile phones and the Internet across Africa, more people are exposed to the better option of digital financial services, both for individuals and businesses. This is a very beneficial advancement as everyday more and more people leverage on this technology to have access to various online digital platforms to make payments across the globe in ways traditional banking never did as online transactions happen quickly and with ease.
Regardless of the popularity of online digital payments, many businesses and individuals in Africa still feel very Insecure and do not trust these digital financial service providers.
With so many concerns about making secure and reliable payments online, problems with making payments for products and services both across the continent and globally, the general fear of being a victim of “fraudsters”, consumers are looking for a product and service they can trust.
This is exactly what Flutterwave, a fintech start up from Nigeria hoped to achieve when they came into the scene in May 2016 and completely revolutionized the online digital payments platforms in Africa.
What is this Flutterwave you may ask?
Flutterwave is an online digital payment platform that is set out to provide the complete payment solutions to enable Africans thrive in the global economy. The company started with a vision to first connect digital payments within Africa and then connecting Africa to the rest of the world. Flutterwave has been to able provide with its various products advance financial technologies and solutions for efficient, reliable and swift and payments across Africa and the globe.
Since they commenced business three years ago, Flutterwave has processed over $2.5 billion in payments, 100 million transactions, and is partnered with over 50 African banks like Standard bank, Ecobank, United Bank for Africa, Guaranty Trust Bank, Zenith Bank , First Bank and Access Bank and many more to ensure that it provides top notch service to the ever growing African market.
Flutterwave raised one of the highest Series A round investment for an African startup and till date has raised over $20 million in investments from companies such as Mastercard, CRE Ventures Fintech Collective, 4DX Ventures, Raba Capital among others. Also as part of the deal, Green Visor Capital Chairman & General Partner and former CEO of Visa, Joseph Saunders, has joined the Flutterwave Board of Directors. Joe, an experienced Venture Capitalist and Chief Executive Officer of a multibillion-dollar financial Services Company added an important factor to the readiness of the company to effectively continue operations post-funding phase.
Flutterwave currently has over 1200 developers that build on its Developer’s playground with a focus on building technology that is not only flexible with an awesome user experience but also provides a payment technology that is reliable and secure thereby easing the fears of the average user.
Flutterwave is building digital payments infrastructure accessible via APIs that enable all available payment options across different African countries. This API allows businesses carry out transactions from MasterCard, Visa, Verve, Mobile Money, ACH — and even cash tokens and e-wallets in different African countries by integrating one API. This is very important because it incorporates the already existing and preferred means of payment by its consumers into its platform. So in plain words, you make and accept payments with methods you are already familiar and comfortable with. The company currently has its headquarters at San Francisco, and also operates out of offices in Lagos, Nairobi, Accra and Johannesburg.
Flutterwave has built an innovative technology that has been able to connect Africans and African businesses with the global economy in ways never before attained
Flutterwave products
Flutterwave has been able to open up, and disrupt the traditional financial services in African and improve trust between African businesses and its global consumers with its innovative products, some of which are Rave and Barter
Rave
Rave by Flutterwave
Rave is a payment solution offered by Flutterwave which enables merchants accept global payments from card, mobile wallet payments, and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data(USSD) code. It is one of the easiest ways for businesses to accept a range of payment methods from customers around the globe
Rave by Flutterwave is a product that can be integrated into various online websites for a better payment experience. One of such websites to incorporate this product is Megabet. It creates any type of payment flow, from e-commerce to recurring billing and everything in between. Using Rave you can set up an e-commerce store with shopify in just minutes and begin to receive payments from customers. With a simple sign up on Rave, you have an unlimited access to all its features.
Currently, Rave supports over 150+ currencies and its flexibility allows it display prices and accept payments in its users preferred currency, improving their overall experience. With Rave, you avoid high conversion fees and can receive funds in your local currency. Rave payment gateway support payment in Naira, US Dollar, Euro, British Pound and many more.
Flutterwave Rave has various user friendly features making users enjoy the experience of using the products it meets their specific needs and the ease of use is an added advantage.
Rave provides a payment gateway that is better than others in numerous way. A payment gateway is a service that securely authorizes a customer’s payment on a website. It is basically used to accept payments on a website, app or even social media. Rave employs a slew of tools geared at protecting merchants from fraud to make transactions secure and reliable. Instant settlement also assures no delay in money availability once customer made payment
Flutterwave is also PCI DSS Level 1 certified which is the highest level of security and ensures that its user’s information are kept safe and private.
The Pricing For Rave is listed Below:
Local Payments:
Payment method: MasterCard, Visa, Bank Account, USSD- 1.4%Processing fee
International Payments:
MasterCard, Visa, American Express-3.5% Processing fee
Some of the companies that use this product include Flywire, Arikair, Jumia, Uber, and Booking.com.
To get started on Flutterwave Rave, click here.
Barter
Barter by Flutterwave
Flutterwave partnered with Visa to launch a consumer payment product called Barter. The product facilitates personal and small payments. Barter is a financial app not unlike your typical bank app, but it also gives users more options to manage their finances, make bill payments, pay for various subscriptions and generally just make everyday transactions as seamless and easy as can be. On their official website, the product is described as being designed to help you focus more on enjoying life and less on how to spend, send and borrow money.
Barter lets the user know how he spends his money and also provide detailed reports that show their spending patterns and insights. This product also allows the user add their bank account to their app dashboard and manage funds in their local currency. Users can also request for short-term loans on the app with ease. Funds can be added to your barter account from your local bank accounts or cards. With the GetBarter App you can make and accept payments with just the touch of a few buttons across the continent. Users who own Visa cards can also send and receive funds at home or internationally on GetBarter while non-card holders (people with accounts or mobile wallets on other platforms) can create a virtual cards to link to the app.
Currently, Barter has two plan for their users,
Barter Premium plan and Barter Classic plan
Barter Premium plan
Barter Premium is a bouquet of exclusive features available only to user on the Barter Premium plan. The service costs ₦500 per month. With Barter Premium:
User can create unlimited Dollar cards; as many as they need.
User can now increase their daily transfer limit from ₦50,000 to ₦200,000.
User pay zero fees on their first 10 bank transfers.
User also pay zero fees on their first 2 bill payments.
User get 2% cashback every time they buy airtime.
User get cheaper fees than regular users on certain transactions.
Barter Classic plan
Barter classic is the regular Barter plan. Users on the Barter Classic plan are able to create a maximum of two Dollar cards and there is a N50,000 limit on daily bank transfers. Users do not get also cashbacks on airtime purchases unlike the premium users. All other features like bank transfers, sending and receiving money, bill payments, all work effectively with very low transaction costs.
One amazing feature about this product is that when you add your Barter card to your Uber app (Naira or dollar), you get 0.5% cash-back after every ride, talk of rewarding your users.
GetBarter also lets you request and send money to any number saved on your phone. You can request as low as N50 or as high as N500,000. Whatever amount you are sent goes right into your Barter Balance.
The Pay with QR feature, which is powered by VISA, allows the user to scan a QR code to make payments with Barter. You can either scan the QR code with your camera directly or upload one from your photos. This feature has been publicly applauded globally.
The GetBarter App is available on Android and IOS
FLUTTERWAVE over time has made major strides in the financial technological space in Africa that has impacted thousands of businesses both in Africa and the global economy.
The recent Partnership of Flutterwave with Alipay has created an access for Flutterwave merchants to over 1 billion potential customers in china and across the world. They had previously partnered with PayAttitude to enabled payments to be made using only your phone number. A very convenient method of payment for those without bank accounts.
As with all tech driven solution providers in the country, Flutterwave has had its own share of difficulties but through it all, they have shown a commitment for excellence.
Flutterwave has gotten well deserved global recognition for its contribution to the financial technology industry. Flutterwave won the West Africa Mobile Awards in 2017 for best commerce and retail service.
Flutterwave’s API is used by many of the payment service providers in Nigeria including Paystack, AmplifyPay, Paywithcapture, and others. With its easy to use and Flexible API that is able to conveniently process millions of transactions both locally and internationally, and with the dedication that the Flutterwave team has shown in just three years in the fininacial technology space, it is very obvious that this is a company set on changing the world and helping businesses in Africa progressively scale up and be a competition in the growing global economy.
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