Ripple participates in Flutterwave, betting on the growth of African payments
Ripple acquired an equity stake in African fintech company Flutterwave in a deal that valued the payments company at $3.3 billion, adding another regional payments network to Ripple’s growing global infrastructure strategy.
Summary
- Ripple has acquired an equity stake in Flutterwave, valuing the African fintech company at $3.3 billion.
- The investment strengthens Ripple’s presence in Africa as demand for faster and cheaper cross-border payments grows.
- Ripple recently expanded the RLUSD and XRP Ledger payment infrastructure across Türkiye, Latin America, the Middle East, and AI-powered payment networks.
According to Bloomberg, Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola said Ripple is involved as an equity investor, providing the company with new capital while becoming a shareholder. Agboola declined to disclose the size of Ripple’s investment or the ownership percentage the company received for doing so.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Agboola said Ripple’s involvement is limited to an equity position rather than a commercial partnership. He added that the structure allows Ripple to benefit from Flutterwave’s future growth as the company continues to expand its payments business across Africa.
Operating in 35 African countries, Flutterwave has become one of the largest financial technology companies on the continent by building payment infrastructure for businesses, merchants and consumers. The investment comes as demand for fast and low-cost international money transfers continues to grow across African markets.
Ripple is expanding its payment infrastructure to all emerging markets
Beyond Africa, Ripple has been adding new payment and payment networks in several regions over the past month.
Earlier this month, Ripple expanded the availability of the US dollar-backed stablecoin RLUSD in Türkiye by partnering with BiLira, Bitexen, and Bitlo. According to Ripple, the release gives users of the Turkish facility access to its regulated stablecoin for digital asset trading and settlement.
In Latin America, Ripple recently integrated Mexican stablecoin Bitso’s peso-backed MXNB into the XRP Ledger and Payments on Decentralized Exchange infrastructure. According to Ripple, MXNB and RLUSD will support the flow of business payments between the US and Mexico by providing regulated assets for the payment of cross-border transactions.
The latest product launches have also gone beyond traditional payments. As reported by crypto.news on June 13, Ripple launched the XRPL AI Starter Kit, a developer toolkit that enables artificial intelligence agents to use XRP and RLUSD for independent payments on the x402 machine payment network. Ripple said the tools allow software agents to create wallets, track balances, and complete transactions with limited human involvement.
Institutions want easy access to digital asset rails
At the same time, Ripple has been positioning itself as an infrastructure provider for banks and financial institutions entering digital assets.
According to Ripple’s UK and Europe Managing Director Cassie Craddock, many financial institutions are already realizing the value of blockchain-based financial services but continue to look for easy ways to access them. Writing earlier this week, Craddock said banks are increasingly seeking support in all areas of warehousing, liquidity, debt settlement and compliance rather than building each component in-house.
Ripple is also expanding its physical presence in the Middle East and Africa. As previously reported by crypto.news, the company recently opened a larger regional headquarters in the Dubai International Financial Center after receiving approval from the Dubai Financial Services Authority to provide regulated international payment services within the DIFC.
The regulator also approved RLUSD for use by regulated entities operating in the financial hub.
