Flutterwave Buys Open Banking Startup Mono in Stock Deal, Signaling New Phase of African Fintech Consolidation
A fresh wave of consolidation is beginning to reshape Africa’s fintech infrastructure landscape, as mature platforms look to deepen their stacks rather than compete as standalone point solutions.
Flutterwave, one of Africa’s most valuable fintech companies, has acquired Nigerian open banking startup Mono in an all-stock transaction valued at between $25 million and $40 million, according to people familiar with the deal. The acquisition brings together two companies that have played central roles in building the rails behind digital finance on the continent.
The deal combines Flutterwave’s expansive payments network—spanning more than 30 African countries—with Mono’s open banking APIs, which allow businesses to access bank data, verify customers, and initiate account-to-account payments. Mono will continue to operate as an independent product under Flutterwave, the companies said.
Founded in 2020, Mono is often described as the “Plaid for Africa.” Its APIs enable users to consent to sharing their bank information, allowing lenders and other financial institutions to analyze income, spending behavior, and repayment capacity. This functionality has become critical in African markets, where credit bureaus are limited and bank transaction data is often the primary signal for assessing creditworthiness.
Mono has raised about $17.5 million from investors including Tiger Global, General Catalyst, and Target Global. Sources close to the transaction said the acquisition enabled investors to at least recoup their capital, with some early backers seeing paper returns of up to 20x based on the implied value of Flutterwave stock received in the deal.
According to Mono CEO Abdulhamid Hassan, nearly all Nigerian digital lenders now rely on the company’s infrastructure. Mono claims to have powered more than 8 million bank account linkages—roughly 12% of Nigeria’s banked population—delivered over 100 billion financial data points to lenders, and processed millions of dollars in direct bank payments. Its customers include Visa-backed Moniepoint and GIC-backed PalmPay.
For Flutterwave, the acquisition represents a step toward deeper vertical integration. Beyond payments, the company can now offer customer onboarding, bank account verification, identity checks, data-driven risk assessment, and one-time or recurring bank payments within a single platform.
Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga “GB” Agboola described the move as a strategic bet on the next stage of fintech growth in Africa. “Payments, data, and trust cannot exist in silos,” he said. “Open banking provides the connective tissue, and Mono has built critical infrastructure in this space.”
Hassan echoed that view, pointing to what he sees as a shift toward a more credit-driven financial system across the continent. Governments and regulators are increasingly pushing lending-led financial inclusion, a transition that depends on both reliable data infrastructure and strong regulatory confidence—particularly in markets like Nigeria, where open banking frameworks are still evolving.
“If the economy is going to be credit-driven, you need deep data intelligence to understand how people earn and spend,” Hassan said. “At the same time, regulators need confidence that customer funds and data are safe.”
Joining Flutterwave positions Mono to scale more rapidly as regulatory barriers ease. Flutterwave already operates across dozens of African markets, with local licenses, enterprise customers, and compliance teams in place—advantages that would have taken Mono years to replicate independently.
The transaction mirrors earlier attempts at consolidation in global fintech infrastructure, including Visa’s failed acquisition of Plaid in 2020, which was blocked by U.S. regulators. Hassan pointed to that deal as evidence of the strategic logic behind combining data infrastructure with payment rails.
Both companies are backed by Tiger Global, which led Flutterwave’s Series C and Mono’s Series A, though Hassan said the firm did not broker the transaction. Instead, the acquisition grew out of a longstanding partnership, with the two companies collaborating on bank payment products over several years.
Mono entered a competitive open banking market that once included players such as Okra and Stitch. Over time, Okra shut down, while Stitch pivoted toward a broader payments-led strategy and raised significantly more capital. Mono, meanwhile, emerged as a leading independent provider.
Addressing speculation around the company’s financial position, Hassan said Mono was not forced into a sale and is on track toward profitability this year. With meaningful cash reserves, he said, raising another funding round would have introduced fresh valuation pressure in a difficult fundraising environment.
Beyond Flutterwave and Mono, the deal signals a broader inflection point for African fintech. As funding tightens and infrastructure matures, startups that once aimed to become standalone giants may increasingly find stronger outcomes by integrating into scaled, pan-African platforms—marking a new chapter in the continent’s fintech evolution.