The long-awaited initial public offering (IPO) of Flutterwave Inc, Africa’s leading digital payment firms, will only take place when it becomes profitable on a sustainable basis.
The digital payment company’s co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Olugbenga Agboola, made this disclosure during an interview in the face of growing challenges in the global economic landscape, especially in Africa where fiscal measures are constraining the performance of businesses.
He said: “For a company operating in Africa, that’s a no-brainer; profitability is very important. Right now, the focus is: ‘how do we build a profitable, resilient and scalable business’,” he said, while declining to provide a timeline.
According to the fintech expert, the timing of the IPO is not just about paper readiness but also about ensuring that the company is delivering long-term sustainable value to its stakeholders.
It would be recalled that Flutterwave management first announced plans for its IPO on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange in 2022 but delayed it to address alleged financial impropriety and personnel harassment in some of its offices in San-Francisco, and to fill key positions after some of its top officials resigned from the company.
The management has denied allegations of financial misconduct leveled against it.
Since it debuted in 2016, Flutterwave has expanded its operations to about 35 African countries, processed more than 630 million transactions valued at $31 billion, and also led some funding rounds, with one in January 2022 raising its market valuation to $3 billion.
In 2024, Flutterwave acquired more than 30 new licenses in the US to expand its remittance business and now is offering services to remit funds to Africa in the US, UK, and European Union (EU) nations.
Agboola recently confirmed that while enterprise payments remains its biggest business segment, remittances were “growing really fast” in part due to reforms in Nigeria, the company’s biggest market.
