Amidst legal troubles in Kenya, Flutterwave lands two licences in Rwanda
African paytech unicorn Flutterwave, currently embroiled in a lawsuit in Kenya, has received its electronic money issuer and remittance licences from the National Bank of Rwanda.
Flutterwave lands two licences in Rwanda
In July last year, the fintech firm was accused of money laundering and fraud by Kenya’s Assets Recovery Agency (ARA). This led to the Kenyan court freezing $52.5 million from Flutterwave and other entities.
While that case was closed this month, and the money released after ARA withdrew its case, Flutterwave was hit with a second lawsuit with $3 million confiscated in August last year, a case that is still ongoing.
However, Flutterwave told TechCrunch it was “confident” that the case was still open due to “usual court processes” and that the outcome will follow the same route as its previous case “as we’ve been cleared of all wrongdoing”.
The unicorn’s latest push in Rwanda follows its $250 million Series D funding round last year and a bid to expand geographically. The company was also recently named as an interested party in acquiring European fintech Railsr (the deal, however, went the way of a VC firms consortium).
“As a country well known for fostering innovation and promoting the use of digital technology, Rwanda has always been important to our expansion plans in East Africa,” says Olugbenga Agboola, founder and CEO of Flutterwave.
With the new licences, in addition to being a payment service provider (PSP), Flutterwave will be able to offer money deposit and withdrawal, electronic funds transfer, as well as inbound and outbound remittance services to Rwandans.
Additionally, Flutterwave plans on deploying Send by Flutterwave, its cross-border money transfer solution as well its solution for businesses which includes store, payment links, invoices and checkout.
