- Flutterwave Emerges Y Combinator’s Most Valuable African Startup
Flutterwave, a Nigerian payment company, has emerged as one of Y Combinator’s top companies in 2019.
In the list released on Thursday, Flutterwave was listed as one of 102 Y Combinator companies valued at over $150 million.
Flutterwave was ranked 97th and has created 102 jobs in total.
Also, it is the only African startups that passed through Y Combinator and presently worth more than $150 million, according to the list.
The cumulative valuation of the 102 companies stood at over $155 billion and collectively have created over 50,000 jobs.
Stripe, the San Francisco based financial technology and services company, led the list. Followed by the popular Airbnb and Cruise.
While DoorDash came fourth with Coinbase listed as 5th.
Flutterwave, founded by Agboola and Iyinoluwa, launched in South Africa earlier this year following approval of its licence by the South African Reserve Bank.
The company also signed a partnership deal with Alipay, China’s largest digital payment platform, to facilitate payments between African businesses and Chinese buyers.
Still, the basis for valuation is not clear as few experts in the industry have raised eyebrows concern startups valuation in Nigeria.
Recently, Tayo Oviosu, Founder and CEO, Paga, a mobile payment startup, said industrial experts should call out lies in stated valuation in the ecosystem.
He said: “We should all call out lies in stated numbers in the ecosystem as it hurts everyone. Last thing we want are investors investing on the basis of lies then getting burned,” Oviosu stated on his official twitter page.
Speaking further, he said, “It’s okay to fail, that is the risk we all take in entrepreneurship and is different from lying…”
