On June 16, 2026, Ripple - the San Francisco-based blockchain payments company, announced it had taken an equity stake in Flutterwave, one of Africa's largest fintech companies. The investment values Flutterwave at $3.3 billion, according to CEO Olugbenga Agboola, who confirmed the deal in an interview but declined to disclose the amount invested or the exact size of Ripple's shareholding.
This is not a passive financial bet. The partnership goes beyond capital: Ripple's dollar-denominated stablecoin RLUSD, the XRP Ledger, and Ripple's global payments network will be integrated directly into Flutterwave's payment stack. Agboola was direct about what Ripple brings: "We are getting capital as they have invested cash in us" and deep access to payment infrastructure across the continent. Unlike others who are "participating at commercial level, they're participating at the equity level, which means obviously they get to participate on the upside."
A Valuation Four Years in the Making
In February 2022, Flutterwave raised $250 million in a Series D round, valuing the company at over $3 billion and making it the highest-valued African startup at the time.
Then things got complicated. Kenya's Asset Recovery Agency froze approximately $52 million of Flutterwave's funds in mid-2022 over suspicions of money laundering and fraud. Governance controversies followed, and IPO plans were delayed. By November 2023, however, the case was withdrawn after investigations showed Flutterwave was not engaged in any illegal activity.
