With immense knowledge in the Fintech industry and leadership, Agboola started the journey into the booming sector. He brought technology in mobile banking to Africa, where there has been a shortage in the banking system. He believes that the startup community in Africa is still developing and that the Fintech industry’s success needs focus and conviction.
During the difficult time as the pandemic shut the brick and mortar businesses and companies started learning the new digital platforms to survive, Agboola leveraged the momentum of the tech startup based in San Francisco and Lagos, Nigeria. The company helps customers safely complete online banking transactions. The company has drastically made a difference for many small businesses by expanding from digital cash registers to hosting digital storefronts. It helped around 20,000 firms during the lockdown.
Agboola says, “We called it ‘Keeping the Lights On.'”
Last year the company made some unbelievable achievements by processing over 80 million transactions worth $7.5 billion.
Born in Lagos, Olugbenga Agboola is an entrepreneur, and he is the CEO and co-founder of Africa’s first-of-its-kind FinTech Company, FlutterWave.
His educational background entails:
- Management Program from the Wharton School
- Master of Business Administration from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Project Management and Advanced Computing from the University of Westminster in London, England
- He holds a standard IT security certification from EC-Council University
Agboola’s career:
- From 2003 to 2004- He worked as an Application Developer for British Telecom Professional Services
- From 2004 to 2005- worked as an Application Engineer for PayPal
- From January 2005 to March 2009- Was a part of the Enterprise Infrastructure Development team for GTBank
- From April 2009 to March 2014- Transactional Product Development Manager for Standard Bank Nigeria
- From May 2014 – Jun 2015 Part of Young African Leaders Initiative
- From Nov 2014 – May 2016 – Head, Digital Factory & Innovation at Access Bank Plc
- From May 2016 – Aug 2018- Senior Entrepreneur in Residence in Africa Fintech Foundry
- From May 2016 to present Flutterwave
- In 2017- He was part of the Strategic Marketing Programme at Northwestern University at the Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, Illinois
- From Oct 2018 – Presently, an entrepreneur at Royal Bank of Scotland Business
- He carries experience in Ethical hacking and is a Certified Ethical Hacker, Security Analyst, and Microsoft Certified System Engineer. With the acquired knowledge, he proved expertise in software engineering and product development. He is an expert in product innovation, hacking, security management, retail banking, Web development programs, and tools, etc., and many more. With his expertise, he singly came up with a Biometric Payment solution for Standard Bank
His achievements:
- He has been a part of the Corporate Card Product Development project in 2011. The project helped create a safe and secure online space for users to use the online tools for card management. The project aimed to offer simplifies solutions to multinationals for cash management.
- Quartz Africa Innovators announced the annual list of 30 ambitious and creative innovators from Africa. To offer perspective on Africa’s growing economies and was listed in it.
- The nonprofit organization Endeavour Nigeria also selected him into its 87th cohort of entrepreneurs. He was one of the six entrepreneurs, and the organization supports high-Impact entrepreneurs globally.
- He is a part of the board of directors for the Corporate Council on Africa.
- He is the Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Great Ife Alumni Association Inc.
- Agboola joined Fast Company’s, a monthly American business magazine, Impact Council, consisting of entrepreneurs, technologists, corporate chieftains, and designers in 2019.
- He is considered one of the influential leaders by Fortune, which released the popular annual “40 under40 “list. The list consists of people who have done significant works in their respective fields. The publication chose people based on five categories: finance, government and policy, healthcare, media and entertainment, and technology.
- Agboola was part of the panel for the US Africa Business Summit in Maputo, Mozambique.
- It is the only African company listed in TIME’s Top 100 Most Influential Companies list for having a significant global impact in 2021. TIME named Flutterwave as a “Pioneer” on the list.
https://www.facebook.com/theFlutterwave/photos/pcb.2748502698738329/2748502648738334/
About the company Flutterwave:
The company is people-driven; the company believes in hiring people with the potential to grow alongside Flutterwave and who can adapt to the company’s values.
The company is people-driven; the company believes in hiring people with the potential to grow alongside Flutterwave and who can adapt to the company’s values.
Flutterwave is a seamless online payment infrastructure helping businesses and banks to overcome challenges and process transactions efficiently. A veteran banking group from Google Wallet, Standard Bank, PayPal. and Andela conceptualized and founded the company. Agboola started as a CTO of the company and became the company’s CEO in 2018.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv3c2UJgyC8
The company was founded in 2016, presently has 323 employees. It has closed 13 rounds in funding that helped the company raise $234.7 m. the latest funding round was on the 9th of March 2021, leading to $17.m from the Series C round. The company has a total of 40 investors. The present valuation of the company is over $1 billion.
Partnerships:
The company’s distinguished partners with a similar vision contribute to the growth and betterment of the merchants and users in Africa. The recent partnership was with Amole to offer digital payment services platform for the users in Ethiopia. As per the Global payments report, the e-commerce sector is estimated to reach $31 billion in Nigeria and $9 billion in South Africa by 2024. Therefore, the company partnered with Wordplay, the payment processing platform that helps any Worldpay merchant in Europe or the U.S. accept African payments. Agboola said, “If someone goes to pay Netflix with an African card, it just works.”
The company joined hands with Forter to drive eCommerce across Africa and Beyond. Other partners include Paypal, Uber, Alipay, African Focused Cryptocurrency Startup, Quidax, and Flywire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glQvpBlcWOA
The market share of the company is 0.18% in payment processing. In the same category, it competes with 176 competitor tools.
The company has a majority of its customers from Nigeria, with 157 customers, which accounts for 43.49%. Other countries using Flutterwave are the United States and Ghana, with 80(22.16%) 28(7.76%) customers. Overall in 2021, more than 483 companies have started using Flutterwave as a payment-processing tool.
Uplifting the society:
The company has put in efforts to foster equality with the –#ChooseToChallenge? It helps five women leaders get the best help needed to continue the businesses – “Funds.” The company has made it an annual event – the “annual Flutterwave International Women’s Day grant” to nurture the dreams of women entrepreneurs with the highly needed capital. Yearly the grant helps five women-led businesses across Africa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmoSlPfAylg
The benefits are:
- Each winner will receive $2500 capital funds.
- They will get free visibility and online promotions with free video content through paid and organic channels.
- The winners will get mentorship from experts in the field exclusively. The mentors will help with Technology, Marketing, Finance, Sales, Operations, Investment, etc.
The target regions for businesses are:
- Nigeria
- Ghana
- Kenya
- Uganda
- South Africa
- Rwanda
- Zambia
A recent announcement of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) and Flutterwave multiyear partnership informed that the payments company is an associate partner of the BAL. The association will drive the shared vision of economic growth across the continent. The company will launch a digital campaign that gives selected African entrepreneurs and small businesses opportunities to travel, connect, and engage with other African markets.
Flutterwave Chief Commercial Officer Ifeoluwa Orioke said, “As a lifelong basketball fan, I am excited that we can team up with the BAL as it tips off its inaugural season.“
The company’s growth and infrastructure that reached 290,000 businesses in more than 33 African countries with exceptional revenue growth of 226% CAGR from 2018-2020 shows an impressive performance. The company looks forward to deepening the impact for sustainable long-term development.