Flutterwave can’t seem to catch a break.
After dealing with a wave of bad press in April, sparked by a Medium post from a former employee and furthered by an investigative piece by a Nigerian journalist, the Nigerian fintech unicorn faces damaging new allegations in Kenya.
This week, Kenyan authorities alleged that Flutterwave helped facilitate a fraud and money laundering scheme. Kenya’s high court has frozen $52 million as part of the investigation into the allegations, which Flutterwave has strenuously denied.
It wasn’t so long ago that Flutterwave seemed not to have a care in the world.
Back in March 2021, the Nigerian payments company joined a very exclusive club by becoming Africa’s (at-the-time) fourth tech unicorn. That was when Tiger Global and Avenir led a $170 million Series C round at a reported valuation north of $1 billion.
Founded in 2016, Flutterwave provides a payment infrastructure for global merchants and payment service providers across the African continent. The company was founded and operates in Nigeria, but its headquarters are in San Francisco.
Fast forward to March of this year. Flutterwave tripled its valuation to more than $3 billion with a $250 million Series D round, which coincided with new offerings like fintech-as-a-service, a buy now, pay later option, and more.Flutterwave Co-founder & CEO Gbenga “GB” Agboola
As Flutterwave grew, Co-founder and CEO Gbenga Agboola gained something akin to rock star status (to the extent that a fintech founder can be a rockstar). He came to be known just by the initials “GB”.
Then on April 3, things took a bit of a turn. That’s when former Flutterwave employee Clara Wanjiku Odero (she left the company in 2018) published a Medium post with the alarming title, “The Flutterwave CEO is bullying me and it ends today.”