In a major moment for African financial technology, Flutterwave which is one of the continent’s most successful fintech firms has acquired Nigerian open-banking startup Mono in a multi-million-dollar, all-stock deal valued between $25 million and $40 million. (TechCrunch)
The deal was completed in late 2025 but publicly announced in January 2026. It stands out as one of the relatively rare significant exits in the African tech ecosystem, especially in infrastructure-oriented fintech where exits have historically been infrequent. (Technext)
Flutterwave: Scaling Pan-African Payments
Founded in 2016 by Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, and Adeleke Adekoya, Flutterwave started with a simple mission: make it easier for businesses to accept payments across Africa and beyond. (Wikipedia)
Over the past decade, it has grown into one of Africa’s largest fintech platforms, enabling millions of transactions across more than 30 countries, supporting online payments, remittances, virtual cards, and merchant services. It has attracted major backing from global investors and has won recognition on lists like the CNBC Disruptor 50.
Mono: The Open Banking Pioneer
Mono, founded in 2020 in Lagos, emerged as one of Africa’s leading open banking infrastructure providers. It is often likened to the African equivalent of Plaid in the U.S. This means it built APIs that let businesses access user-permitted financial data and enable bank-linked payments and verification. (Techpoint Africa). Open banking has become a core piece of modern financial infrastructure because it enables safer, faster bank-to-bank payments and richer insights into financial behaviour
What the Deal Means For Flutterwave
By bringing Mono’s technology fully into its ecosystem, Flutterwave gains a native layer of open banking. This ranges from account data access and identity verification to account-to-account payments. This will deepen its footprint beyond payment rails into the connective infrastructure of financial services. (Finovate)
That means Flutterwave can now: onboard customers faster and more securely, verify identities and bank accounts with less friction, enable bank-to-bank payments, not just card or platform-based ones. The company will also be able to expand services into lending, credit scoring, and other data-rich offerings while also building more interoperable and trust-based financial systems across Africa (Flutterwave)
For Mono and Its Investors
For many investors, including early backers, this transaction offers one of the few liquidity events in Africa’s startup ecosystem. Some reportedly achieved returns many times over their initial stakes. (Business Insider Africa)
Broader Implications for African Fintech
1. A Strong Signal of Consolidation and Maturation
Unlike earlier stages when fintech players focused narrowly on payments or wallets, the Flutterwave–Mono deal reflects a move toward platform consolidation. Combining payments, data, identity, and risk into one stack. This mirrors global fintech trends where integrated infrastructure wins scale and margins. (Rasmal)
2. Open Banking Takes Centre Stage
Africa is increasingly embracing open banking frameworks. Nigeria’s Central Bank formalised open banking regulations in 2025, pushing shared bank data and authenticated payments into mainstream finance. (Punch Newspapers). This acquisition positions Flutterwave at the forefront of that shift, allowing it to leverage deeper data to improve credit assessments, fight fraud, and deliver richer financial services.
3. Greater Financial Inclusion
By streamlining onboarding, verification, and access to financial services for individuals and SMEs, the combined Flutterwave-Mono infrastructure can accelerate inclusion. This will bring more people and small businesses into formal digital finance.
4. A Platform for Future Innovation
With open banking integrated, Flutterwave could extend into emerging areas like: Embedded finance, data-driven lending solutions, stablecoin, and digital asset use cases. They can also get into smart credit scoring independent of traditional credit bureaus (PYMNTS.com)
Conclusion
In advanced tech ecosystems, financial infrastructure is tightly interconnected—payments, identity, data, and analytics work seamlessly to drive productivity and inclusion. Africa is now approaching a similar inflection point as its digital economy rapidly expands across gig workers, SMEs, and large enterprises. The Flutterwave–Mono combination represents more than a business transaction; it signals a shift in how money flows and trust is established at scale. It marks a milestone that shows African fintech is moving beyond producing unicorns to building foundational, globally relevant infrastructure companies.