Flutterwave, an African fintech startup has launched Flutterwave Store, a platform for African SMEs to sell online.
According to reports, Flutterwave Store will have no inventory or warehouse requirements.
Flutterwave will commence in 15 African countries and the only fees the fintech startup will charge for now are on payments. Otherwise, it’s free for SMEs to create an online storefront and for buyers and sellers to transact goods.
The company accelerated the development of Flutterwave Store in response to COVID-19, which has brought restrictive measures to SMEs and traders operating in Africa’s largest economies.
After creating a profile, users can showcase inventory and link up to a payment option. Flutterwave Store will operate through existing third-party logistics providers, such as Sendy in Kenya and Sendbox in Nigeria for pickup and delivery.
Olugbenga Agboola, CEO of Flutterwave said: “It’s not a direction change. We’re still a B2B payment infrastructure company. We are not moving into becoming an online retailer, and no we’re not looking to become Jumia.
“The goal is not to become like eBay, that’s advocating for everybody. We’re just giving small merchants the infrastructure to create an online store at zero cost right from scratch,” he said.
Launched in 2016, Flutterwave allows clients to tap its APIs and work with Flutterwave developers to customize payment applications. Existing customers include Uber and Booking.com.
Flutterwave with offices in Lagos and San Francisco, processed 107 million transactions worth $5.4 billion, according to company data in 2019, in July 2019, the fintech startup partnered with Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba’s Alipay to offer digital payments between Africa and China and on January 2020, the startup raised a $35 million Series B round and announced a partnership with Worldpay FIS for payments in Africa.
