Africa’s largest fintech company, Flutterwave, has completed the acquisition of the Nigerian open banking startup Mono in an all-stock transaction estimated to be worth between $25 million and $40 million. This deal represents a major consolidation of infrastructure within the African tech ecosystem, merging Flutterwave’s extensive payment network with Mono’s specialized data-sharing APIs.
Often referred to as the “Plaid of Africa,” Mono has built a reputation for providing the connectivity that allows businesses to access bank data, verify customers, and initiate payments directly from accounts. Despite the change in ownership, the companies have stated that Mono will continue to function as an independent product, maintaining its focus on data intelligence.
Since its founding in 2020, Mono has played a pivotal role in Nigeria’s digital economy by addressing the lack of standardized access to financial data. In a market where traditional credit bureaus have limited reach, digital lenders have come to rely on Mono’s infrastructure to analyze the income and spending patterns of their customers.
CEO Abdulhamid Hassan has noted that nearly all major digital lenders in Nigeria now utilize Mono’s services, which have powered more than 8 million bank account linkages to date. This represents roughly 12% of the country’s banked population and involves the processing of over 100 billion financial data points for clients such as Moniepoint and PalmPay.
For Flutterwave, the acquisition is a calculated move to deepen its vertical integration across the 30 African countries where it currently operates. By bringing Mono into its fold, Flutterwave can now provide a more comprehensive suite of services that includes identity verification, bank account authentication, and data-driven risk assessments within a single payment stack. Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga “GB” Agboola has described open banking as the connective
e tissue for the next phase of the continent’s financial growth, arguing that data and payments must work together to build trust in credit-driven markets.
The transaction also provides a notable exit for Mono’s investors, which include prominent firms like Tiger Global, General Catalyst, and Target Global. Having raised $17.5 million prior to the sale, the deal allows these backers to recoup their capital, with some early investors seeing significant paper returns based on the valuation of the Flutterwave stock they received.
While the deal mirrors global trends in fintech consolidation—such as the high-profile attempt by Visa to acquire Plaid—it also highlights a shift in the African market where successful startups are increasingly finding value in joining larger, more established platforms to navigate regulatory hurdles and scale more effectively.
