Flutterwave has acquired Nigerian open banking startup Mono in an all-stock transaction valued between $25 million and $40 million, according to people familiar with the deal.
The acquisition brings together two fintech infrastructure companies operating at scale in Africa. Flutterwave runs one of the continent's largest payments networks, while Mono provides APIs that allow businesses to access bank data, verify customers, and initiate payments.
Founded in 2020, Mono enables users to consent to sharing bank account information, which lenders and financial firms use to assess income, spending behavior, and repayment capacity. The company says its infrastructure supports nearly all digital lenders in Nigeria and has powered more than 8 million bank account connections, covering about 12% of the country's banked population.
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Mono has raised about $17.5 million from investors including Tiger Global, General Catalyst, and Target Global. People close to the transaction said investors were able to recover their capital, with some early backers receiving stock implying paper returns of up to 20 times. Mono will continue to operate as an independent product.
For Flutterwave, which operates across more than 30 African countries, the deal adds bank data access, onboarding tools, and account-based payments to its payments stack.
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Key Takeaways
The acquisition reflects a shift toward consolidation in African fintech as funding conditions tighten and infrastructure players look to scale through integration rather than expansion alone. Payments companies are increasingly seeking control over data, onboarding, and compliance tools to offer end-to-end services to businesses. Open banking has become central to credit-led financial inclusion across Africa, especially in markets with limited credit bureau coverage. Lenders often rely on transaction data to assess risk, making bank data infrastructure critical to growth. However, regulation around open banking remains uneven, slowing adoption in some markets. By joining Flutterwave, Mono gains access to licenses, enterprise clients, and compliance teams already operating across multiple countries. This positions the company to expand faster as regulatory frameworks mature. The deal also mirrors global fintech trends, where payment networks have sought to combine transaction rails with data platforms to deepen customer relationships. More broadly, the transaction suggests that African fintech is entering a phase where scale, regulation, and integrated platforms matter more than standalone growth, pushing startups toward partnerships or mergers to reach sustainable outcomes.
