Flutterwave has acquired Nigerian open banking startup Mono in an all-stock transaction valued at between $25 million and $40 million, underscoring growing consolidation in Africa’s fintech infrastructure space and a broader shift toward bank-based payment systems.
Flutterwave has acquired Nigerian open banking startup Mono in an all-stock deal valued between $25 million and $40 million.The acquisition strengthens Flutterwave’s payments infrastructure with open banking, data, and identity capabilities.Mono will continue to operate independently, with no changes to its leadership or core operations.Some early Mono investors reportedly achieved returns of up to 20 times their initial investment.
The acquisition brings together two of the continent’s most influential fintech infrastructure players. Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company, says the move strengthens its long-term ambition to build a more connected and interoperable financial system, with open banking positioned as a core pillar of its future growth.Mono, which pioneered open banking infrastructure in Nigeria and has expanded across the continent, provides API driven access to financial data, identity verification, and account-to-account payments.These capabilities are increasingly seen as critical as African markets push for more trusted, data-led financial services beyond traditional card payments.
Under the terms of the deal, Mono will continue to operate as an independent product, with no changes to its leadership, team, or day-to-day operations.Flutterwave’s stake is designed to enable strategic alignment rather than operational control, allowing Mono to maintain its pace of innovation while contributing its technology to Flutterwave’s wider payments ecosystem.Commenting on the acquisition, Flutterwave founder and chief executive Olugbenga Agboola said the deal reflects a broader view of how Africa’s financial infrastructure must evolve.“Payments, data, and trust cannot exist in silos. Open banking provides the connective tissue, and Mono has built critical infrastructure in this space,” he said, adding that the acquisition expands what is possible for businesses operating across African markets while remaining grounded in security and compliance.For Flutterwave, integrating Mono’s open banking APIs results in faster onboarding, improved verification, reduced fraud, and seamless account-to-account payments. The company also sees longer-term opportunities in alternative payment methods and in open banking-enabled stablecoin use cases, as demand grows for locally relevant, authenticated payment flows.
Mono founder and chief executive Abdulhamid Hassan said the acquisition builds on an existing relationship between both companies.“Since our first partnership with Flutterwave in 2021, we have seen the power of a coordinated effort toward unlocking Africa’s open banking potential,” he said.According to Hassan, combining Mono’s data and identity capabilities with Flutterwave’s scale and global reach creates a more comprehensive and defensible infrastructure layer for the next generation of African fintech.The transaction also delivers returns for Mono’s investors, with some early backers reportedly achieving up to 20 times their initial investment, a sign of increasing maturity in Africa’s startup exit landscape.The deal was advised by Nichole Yembra of The Chrysalis Advisors Africa and comes at a time when regulators, developers, and businesses are demanding financial systems that are open by design, interoperable, and built for trust across the continent.
