The all-stock Mono deal deepens Flutterwave’s open banking capabilities and marks a rare exit in the continent’s fintech ecosystem.
Rapid Push into Open Banking
Africa’s largest fintech company, Flutterwave, has acquired open banking infrastructure startup Mono in an all-stock deal reportedly valued between $25 million and $40 million.
The move brings open banking technology fully into Flutterwave’s fintech stack, expanding its reach beyond traditional payments processing into deeper financial infrastructure.
Transaction Details and Strategic Rationale
The all-stock acquisition reflects a strategic alignment between the two companies rather than a standard buy-out: Mono will continue to operate independently, retaining its leadership, team and day-to-day operations.
Founded in 2020 and based in Lagos, Mono has built an API-driven platform that connects with dozens of banks, enabling businesses to securely access customer-permissioned bank data, verify identities, and initiate bank payments, functions that are increasingly critical in African markets where standardized access to financial data remains limited.
The acquisition will allow Flutterwave to offer a broader set of services, such as faster merchant onboarding, improved identity verification, and direct account-to-account payments, enhancing its ability to serve enterprises across the continent.
A Rare Exit and Ecosystem Signal
The deal marks a notable and uncommon exit within African fintech, highlighting how infrastructure players like Mono are increasingly finding pathways to liquidity and consolidation rather than remaining standalone startups.
The acquisition comes at a time when fintech consolidation is emerging as a theme across the continent, with successful startups integrating deeper into larger platforms to drive scale and expand offerings.
Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave, said: “This acquisition reflects how we think about the future of financial infrastructure in Africa. 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 allows us to expand what’s possible for businesses operating across African markets, while staying grounded in security, compliance and local relevance.”
“We built Mono to unlock Africa’s Open Banking potential, and since our first partnership with Flutterwave in 2021 and working together over the years, we’ve seen the power of a coordinated effort towards this goal,” said Abdulhamid Hassan, Founder and CEO of Mono.
“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. This acquisition allows us to build the infrastructure layer that powers the next generation of African fintech at the speed and scale the continent deserves.”
Implications for Payments and Data Infrastructure
Industry observers note that combining Flutterwave’s extensive payments network, which processes transactions across more than 30 African countries, with Mono’s open banking APIs positions the company to be more than a payments processor.
Open banking can enable richer financial services such as data-driven risk assessment, enhanced fraud controls, and authenticated payment flows, which are increasingly essential as African digital economies deepen.
By embedding these capabilities, Flutterwave aims to meet growing business demand for secure and seamless financial infrastructure across markets where traditional credit bureaus and data-sharing systems are underdeveloped.
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