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Flutterwave, a San Francisco- and Lagos-based fintech group led by prominent tech entrepreneur Olugbenga Agboola, is considering an initial public offering on the NASDAQ stock exchange in a move to allow investors to purchase shares in the company on the open market.
The fast-growing payments startup has planned the IPO on the tech-heavy NASDAQ as it reaches a scale and trajectory comparable to that of publicly traded companies.
The planned listing comes amid allegations of financial wrongdoings such as money laundering, insider trading, fraud, perjury, and, most recently, claims by the Central Bank of Kenya that the fintech firm is not permitted to operate remittance businesses or provide payment services to Kenyan merchants.
Experts contend that deferring the resolution of the allegations until at least next year will favor Flutterwave, and that its valuation will be greater if investors are provided sufficient time to rebalance, as all attention is presently concentrated on the slump on international markets.
Flutterwave CFO Oneal Bhambani, who joined the firm in June, disagreed with analysts, claiming that the company had appealing market potential and the opportunity to do so now.
“We have the attractive market potential and opportunity to do so now,” Bhambani said. He went on to state that the fintech company is putting in place all the controls, processes, and infrastructure required to prepare for an IPO, and that the net proceeds from the listing will be used to grow operations in existing markets and to enter new ones.
Flutterwave became Africa’s most valuable tech startup nearly seven months ago after obtaining $250 million in a Series-D funding round, increasing the company’s net worth to more than $3 billion in less than a year.
The Series-D round follows a fantastic five-year run in which Flutterwave processed over 200 million transactions, totaling more than $16 billion across 34 African countries.
