Flutterwave acquires Nigerian open banking startup Mono

Flutterwave has acquired Nigerian open banking startup Mono in an all-stock deal—an acquisition paid in equity—valued between $25 million and $40 million, according to people familiar with the transaction. Mono, which operates in Nigeria, provides open banking services, which refers to financial data sharing via APIs. Under the terms of the transaction, Mono will continue to operate as an independent product, according to the companies.

Mono, founded in 2020, has raised about $17.5 million from investors, including Tiger Global, General Catalyst, and Target Global. The startup provides financial infrastructure for the African market. According to Mono, its key performance metrics include:

• Powering more than 8 million bank account linkages, covering roughly 12% of Nigeria’s banked population.
• Delivering 100 billion financial data points to lending companies.

Its customers include Moniepoint, which is backed by Visa, and PalmPay, which is backed by GIC.

For Flutterwave, which operates across more than 30 African countries, the acquisition deepens its vertical integration by combining different stages of service. Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga “GB” Agboola and Mono CEO Abdulhamid Hassan frame the deal as a strategic move to build a unified stack of payments, data, and trust. Agboola stated, “Payments, data, and trust cannot exist in silos. Open banking provides the connective tissue, and Mono has built critical infrastructure in this space.” Hassan noted that as African economies transition toward being credit-driven, businesses require deep data intelligence to understand how people earn and spend, while regulators must remain confident that customer funds are safe.

The transaction mirrors consolidation trends in other markets, such as Visa’s failed acquisition of Plaid in 2020, which was blocked by U.S. regulators. Hassan indicated that Mono was not forced into a sale to Flutterwave and is on track toward profitability this year. The startup previously raised $15 million in a Series A round in 2021 at a $50 million post-money valuation, according to PitchBook. This consolidation, similar to the integration between South African fintechs Lesaka and Adumo, signals a broader shift where African startups are prioritizing integration into scaled platforms over standalone growth.

Why it matters

This consolidation signals a shift in African fintech where infrastructure players are integrating to build comprehensive financial stacks, moving beyond standalone product models to capture credit-driven market growth.