Flutterwave, Africa’s largest fintech company that operates a wide payments network across more than 30 African countries, has acquired Nigerian open banking startup Mono in an all-stock deal valued between 25 million and 40 million dollars, according to people familiar with the transaction.
The acquisition brings together Flutterwave’s payments infrastructure with Mono’s APIs that enable businesses to access bank data, initiate payments and verify customers; Mono will continue to operate as an independent product. Mono has raised about 17.5 million dollars from investors including Tiger Global, General Catalyst and Target Global, and sources said the acquisition allowed its investors to at least recoup capital, with some early backers realizing returns of up to 20x.
Founded in 2020 and led by CEO Abdulhamid Hassan, Mono builds APIs that let users consent to share bank information so financial institutions can analyze income, spending patterns and repayment capacity. The company says it has powered more than 8 million bank account linkages — roughly 12% of Nigeria’s banked population — delivered 100 billion financial data points to lending companies and processed millions in direct bank payments for customers including Moniepoint and PalmPay. According to PitchBook, Mono raised 15 million dollars in a 2021 Series A at a 50 million dollar post-money valuation.
Flutterwave, led by CEO Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, powers local and cross-border payments across dozens of African markets. For Flutterwave, the deal deepens vertical integration by enabling the company to offer onboarding and identity checks, bank account verification, data-driven risk assessment and one-time or recurring bank payments within a single stack.
Flutterwave said the acquisition will allow it to expand what is possible for businesses operating across African markets while remaining grounded in security, compliance and local relevance, and it positions Mono to scale more quickly as regulatory barriers to open banking evolve by leveraging Flutterwave’s local licenses, enterprise customers and compliance teams.
“Payments, data, and trust cannot exist in silos,” said Olugbenga “GB” Agboola. “Open banking provides the connective tissue, and Mono has built critical infrastructure in this space.” “If the economy is going to be credit-driven, you need deep data intelligence to know how people earn and spend,” added Mono CEO Abdulhamid Hassan.
