Flutterwave, one of Africa’s largest and most successful payments technology companies, has announced its acquisition of Mono, a leading provider of open banking infrastructure. Flutterwave Acquires Open Banking Startup Mono. The all-stock deal, valued between US$25 million and US$40 million, solidifies Flutterwave’s position in the rapidly growing African fintech market, where businesses are increasingly moving away from traditional card networks toward account-to-account payments, identity verification, and localized financial infrastructure.
Mono, which provides application programming interfaces (APIs) for secure bank account data access, customer identity verification, and direct bank payments, will continue to operate independently after the acquisition. The leadership, staff, and day-to-day operations at Mono will remain unchanged, ensuring continuity for clients and partners alike.
As regulators and businesses across Africa push for greater transparency, fraud reduction, and compliance in digital transactions, Mono’s capabilities have become critical for the region’s financial markets. Open banking—enabling businesses to securely access financial data and facilitate payments directly from customer accounts—has become a key component of building secure, scalable financial ecosystems.
Strengthening Flutterwave’s Infrastructure
Flutterwave’s acquisition of Mono reflects the company’s forward-thinking approach to the future of financial infrastructure in Africa. As Olugbenga Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave, noted, “Payments, data, and trust cannot exist in silos. Open banking provides the connective tissue, and Mono has built critical infrastructure in this space.”
Mono, founded in 2020, has raised approximately US$17.5 million from investors such as Tiger Global, General Catalyst, and Target Global. With this acquisition, Flutterwave’s expansion into the open banking sector allows its investors to largely recoup their capital, as the growing demand for secure, efficient digital payments across Africa continues to rise.
The Role of Bank Transfers and Mobile Payments in Africa
In many African markets, card penetration remains limited. As a result, bank transfers and mobile-linked accounts have become the primary method for both consumer and business payments. By integrating Mono’s systems into its platform, Flutterwave is expected to streamline merchant onboarding, strengthen fraud controls, and improve payment reliability. This is especially crucial for cross-border transactions, where efficiency and security are vital.
Abdulhamid Hassan, Founder and CEO of Mono, shared his enthusiasm for the deal: “Mono’s capabilities across financial data access, direct bank payments, and identity verification, combined with Flutterwave’s unmatched scale and global reach, create something more defensible and comprehensive. This acquisition allows us to build the infrastructure layer that powers the next generation of African fintech at the speed and scale the continent deserves.”
Benefits for Developers, Financial Institutions, and Regulators
For developers and financial institutions, the integration of Mono’s infrastructure with Flutterwave is expected to reduce complexity by combining payments execution and financial data access within a single, streamlined ecosystem. Additionally, regulatory authorities may benefit from the consolidation of infrastructure under global security frameworks like PCI-DSS and ISO 27001, ensuring stronger data governance and greater standardization across the region’s fintech platforms.
Chrysalis Advisors Africa provided advisory services for the transaction.
