Africa’s largest fintech company, Flutterwave, has acquired Nigerian open banking startup Mono in an all-stock transaction valued between $25 million and $40 million, according to people familiar with the deal, in a move that significantly expands Flutterwave’s fintech infrastructure beyond payments.

The acquisition brings together two of Africa’s most prominent fintech infrastructure players. Flutterwave operates one of the continent’s broadest payments networks, enabling local and cross-border transactions across more than 30 African countries. Mono, often described as the Plaid for Africa, provides APIs that allow businesses to access bank data, verify customers, initiate payments, and assess financial behaviour with user consent.

Under the terms of the deal, Mono will continue to operate as an independent product, the companies said, while being integrated into Flutterwave’s broader platform. The acquisition allows Flutterwave to offer payments, onboarding, identity verification, bank account verification, and data-driven risk assessment within a single technology stack.

Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Flutterwave CEO said, “This acquisition is about building the connective tissue for Africa’s next phase of fintech growth. Payments, data, and trust cannot exist in silos. Open banking provides the foundation, and Mono has built critical infrastructure in this space.”

Founded in 2020, Mono enables consumers to consent to sharing their bank information with financial institutions, allowing lenders and fintechs to analyse income, spending patterns, and repayment capacity. The product has become core infrastructure for Nigeria’s digital lending ecosystem, where limited credit bureau coverage means lenders often rely on bank transaction histories to assess creditworthiness.

Abdulhamid Hassan, Mono CEO said nearly all Nigerian digital lenders now rely on the company’s infrastructure. Mono claims to have powered more than 8 million bank account linkages, covering roughly 12 percent of Nigeria’s banked population, delivered over 100 billion financial data points to lenders, and processed millions of dollars in direct bank payments. Its customers include Visa-backed Moniepoint and GIC-backed PalmPay.

The startup has raised about $17.5 million from investors including Tiger Global, General Catalyst, and Target Global. Sources close to the transaction said the acquisition allowed all investors to at least recoup their capital, with some early backers realising returns of up to 20x, a rare outcome in a difficult funding environment for African startups.

For Flutterwave, the deal represents a deeper push into vertical integration at a time when fintechs are under pressure to demonstrate stronger unit economics and broader product relevance. In addition to card and bank payments, Flutterwave can now embed open banking capabilities such as income verification, account ownership checks, and recurring bank payments directly into its platform.

Hassan framed the deal as a strategic response to Africa’s shifting financial landscape. “Africa is entering a credit-driven phase, as governments push lending-led financial inclusion. If the economy is going to be credit-driven, you need deep data intelligence to understand how people earn and spend. At the same time, regulators need to be confident that customer funds and data are safe,” he said.

Open banking frameworks across Africa, particularly in Nigeria, are still evolving, with regulatory clarity lagging product adoption. Against that backdrop, Hassan said joining Flutterwave positions Mono to scale more rapidly once regulatory barriers ease. Flutterwave already operates across dozens of African markets with local licences, enterprise customers, and compliance teams in place.

“This allows us to expand what’s possible for businesses operating across African markets while staying grounded in security, compliance, and local relevance,” Agboola said.

According to Tech crunch report, the transaction mirrors earlier consolidation efforts in global fintech infrastructure, including Visa’s attempted acquisition of Plaid in 2020, which was ultimately blocked by U.S. regulators.

Hassan cited that deal as evidence that combining data infrastructure with payment rails can unlock significant scale, even as regulatory scrutiny remains high.

Both Flutterwave and Mono are backed by Y Combinator and share Tiger Global as a common investor. Hassan said, however, that Tiger Global did not facilitate the transaction. Instead, the deal grew out of a long-standing commercial relationship between the two companies, which had partnered on several bank payment products over the years.

That collaboration unfolded against a rapidly changing open banking landscape. When Mono launched, it faced competition from firms such as Okra and Stitch. Since then, Okra has shut down, while Stitch has pivoted toward a deeper payments-focused model that has enabled it to raise significantly more capital. Mono has emerged as a leading standalone open banking provider in Nigeria during that period.

Addressing speculation around Mono’s financial position, Hassan said the company was not forced into a sale. According to PitchBook, Mono raised a $15 million Series A in 2021 at a $50 million post-money valuation and is on track toward profitability this year. With strong cash reserves, he said raising another funding round would have introduced new valuation and growth pressures amid a tougher global funding climate.

Beyond the two companies involved, the acquisition signals a broader inflection point for African fintech. As funding tightens and regulatory demands increase, startups that once aspired to become standalone giants may increasingly find better outcomes by integrating into scaled platforms.

For Flutterwave, the Mono deal underscores a strategic bet that the future of African fintech lies not just in moving money, but in owning the data and trust layers that make credit, commerce, and financial inclusion possible at scale.