Flutterwave Acquires Mono to Strengthen Open Banking and Payments Infrastructure in Africa
Flutterwave, Africa’s largest fintech company, has acquired Nigerian open banking startup Mono in an all-stock transaction valued between $25 million and $40 million.
The acquisition brings together two major fintech infrastructure players as Flutterwave looks to deepen its payments stack with open banking, financial data access, identity verification, and account-to-account payment capabilities, areas increasingly seen as foundational to the next phase of Africa’s digital finance evolution.
Under the agreement, Mono will continue operating as an independent product, with no changes to its leadership or day-to-day operations. The deal enables Mono’s investors to at least recoup their capital, with some early backers reportedly recording returns of up to 20 times
Why Flutterwave Acquired Mono
Flutterwave disclosed that Mono’s platform provides secure access to bank data, identity verification, and direct bank payment services, capabilities that are becoming critical as African markets move away from card-dominated payments toward authenticated, bank-based alternatives.
Speaking on the acquisition, Flutterwave Founder and CEO Olugbenga Agboola said the deal reflects the company’s long-term vision for Africa’s financial infrastructure.
“Payments, data, and trust cannot exist in silos. Open banking provides the connective tissue, and Mono has built critical infrastructure in this space. This acquisition allows us to expand what’s possible for businesses operating across African markets, while staying grounded in security, compliance, and local relevance,” Agboola said.
Mono and Flutterwave’s Existing Relationship
Mono Founder and CEO Abdulhamid Hassan noted that the acquisition builds on an existing relationship between both companies that began with a partnership in 2021.
“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,” Hassan stated.
Flutterwave said the integration of Mono’s open banking APIs will strengthen its ability to support:
- Faster merchant onboarding
- Improved identity and bank verification
- Reduced fraud
- Seamless account-to-account payments across multiple African markets
Beyond Payments: Compliance, Developers, and Platform Depth
Beyond payments, the acquisition is expected to simplify compliance-heavy processes for businesses, including identity checks and bank verification.
Developers and ecosystem partners are also expected to benefit from a more unified infrastructure layer, where payments and financial data coexist, reducing complexity and accelerating product development.
Flutterwave added that the deal enhances its vertical depth, unlocking potential benefits such as stronger margins, deeper platform stickiness, and more differentiated fintech infrastructure.
From a regulatory perspective, the acquisition supports increased standardisation, data protection, and compliance with global security standards such as PCI-DSS and ISO 27001.
Open Banking and the Future of African Fintech
Africa’s fintech ecosystem is increasingly shifting away from card-based payments toward bank-based, authenticated, and alternative payment methods. Open banking is emerging as a critical enabler of this transition, supporting trusted data sharing, account-to-account payments, and new financial products.
By acquiring Mono, Flutterwave is positioning itself to play a more central role in shaping the next phase of Africa’s payments growth, particularly as demand rises for interoperable systems that support scale, compliance, and cross-border innovation.
Open banking remains at an early stage in many African markets but is increasingly viewed as foundational infrastructure for fintech innovation, alternative payments, and future use cases such as open banking-enabled digital assets and stablecoins.
Mono’s Journey: From Paystack to Open Banking Pioneer
Speaking in a recent interview with Nairametrics, Hassan shared how he left Paystack to establish Mono in 2020, at a time when open banking was not yet a buzzword in Nigeria.
According to Hassan, while others focused solely on payments, Mono was built on the belief that financial data would power the next generation of fintech.
Five years later, Mono has:
- Processed over 150 billion transactions
- Served more than 7 million users
- Expanded operations into Kenya and Ghana
The acquisition marks a major milestone for both companies and underscores the growing strategic importance of open banking infrastructure in Africa’s rapidly evolving fintech landscape.
