- 2 weeks ago
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00:00You've stressed the importance of profitability, also a resilient and scalable business.
00:06Talk to us about what you have achieved this year and what your path to profitability looks like.
00:12So in the last couple of months, this year actually, we shifted our focus to think about how do we become more sustainable as a company?
00:22How do we get better in economics? How do we get better capital allocation?
00:26And across a lot of segments, enterprises, SMBs, and consumer, we have basically gone very, very deep into this in the last couple of months.
00:36We have gone our enterprise business in our Asia corridor by almost 50% across the board.
00:43We've gone our margin by almost 100% in the period as well.
00:47We have also ensured that our fiscal discipline continues even to 2026 as a company.
00:53So then how close are you to profitability?
00:56We're pretty much there. We're still investing in the company, in the business, but we're investing smartly and carefully.
01:03We understand exactly why we're investing and we're unlocking new growth levers.
01:08But that said, the goal is profitability.
01:11You know, we're thinking about our fundamental, which is key for us.
01:14And for us, being profitable gives us independence and which is resilience, as we call it.
01:19So potentially 2026, you'll get to that goal you've mentioned.
01:23In the entire business, yes.
01:25We already have some power payments that are already profitable, but in the entire group business, 2026, yeah.
01:32GB, can you speak about some of those new growth levers?
01:34Because Flutterwave is only one of a handful of unicorns across the African continent.
01:40What is it that you're finding is successful in terms of growing and expanding the business?
01:44So number one, we're thinking about, you know, how money moves on the continent.
01:49We're thinking about infrastructure and how it empowers our clients.
01:54The topography of my business is really enterprises, small businesses, and consumers.
02:00How do we enable them?
02:02For example, stablecoin.
02:04We're building, for example, the biggest stablecoin deployment ever done ever in Africa, right?
02:10We're ensuring every business, every consumer has a stablecoin wallet.
02:14And let me explain why it's important.
02:16Think of a small business in Lagos, Nigeria, who wants to pay a supplier in China or in the U.S.
02:23And the lead time to getting your suppliers is maybe a week if you pay by regular payment methods.
02:31If you pay with stablecoin, with USDC, for example, you get your supplier gets the payment real time, right?
02:38So we're getting customer demand for how do I get my suppliers faster?
02:43And so we're building that infrastructure for a consumer.
02:46It's remittances, right?
02:47It's moving money to family across the diaspora.
02:51That money movement can happen with stablecoin in seconds, unlike fiat that takes you two, three days, right?
02:57So in Africa right now, that is key.
02:59So we're building this stablecoin infrastructure that connects the fiat world to the stablecoin world.
03:05That's number one.
03:05Number two is we're also going very deep into our elements products.
03:11We want to ensure that we're covering every corridor in Africa.
03:15The easiest way to move money in Africa should be through Florida Wave.
03:18If you're a consumer or you're a business, even an enterprise.
03:21And in the last one year, for example, our enterprise business grew over a thousand percent for our Asia corridor.
03:28And why did that happen?
03:29That was because of the fact that we saw the trade routes across the continent.
03:33There's a lot of African SMBs and corporates that import from China or from Asia and will build a corridor, making payments simpler for them.
03:45And that's what we've done.
03:47It's now an element of growth massively in 2025, 2025 going forward as well.
03:52Why focus on stablecoins now, GB, if really the backbone of your business was fiat?
03:58Is there a certain advantage that you're seeing using stablecoins to grow parts of the business?
04:04It's just in response to customer demand, right?
04:07Like I mentioned, we have clients today.
04:09It's a defensive strategy, to be very honest.
04:13We have customers today who wants to pay a supplier.
04:15That supplier says, look, if you pay me with stablecoin, I get paid in real time.
04:20If you pay me with fiat, it's two, three, five, four, five days, right?
04:23So we have to respond to our customer demand.
04:26We're getting so many customers saying, how do I quickly pay my clients?
04:30How do I quickly receive money?
04:32We want to reduce the cost of remittances as well.
04:35How do you make it cheaper for a mom in America to send money back to their family in Lagos or in Accra or in Nairobi or in Lusaka?
04:44You know, that's the point.
04:46So it's really customer response.
04:48We operate and expand across our customer demand as a company.
04:52What are your ambitions then for 2026?
04:552026 for us is the year that everything just comes together, right?
05:00We're not just moving money.
05:01The last decade, literally, we've been in the race for Africa's growth, right?
05:06And the future of Africa, in our opinion, is not hype.
05:09It's infrastructure-led.
05:11When Africa wins, the global economy wins.
05:13We're building the pipes, and those pipes are now off-edge.
05:16Now, as of right now, we are the biggest fintech in Africa, the most licensed non-bank entity.
05:22And the last 10 years, we build that down more so.
05:24Now, we're putting that to the test, all right?
05:26Now, we've covered the entire world.
05:28We have UK, US, UAE, Canada, Europe covered through our partnership with global revenue, for example, and Nuvion.
05:34And the point behind that really is, how do we ensure we use that infrastructure to drive the next case of growth for Florida Wave by empowering our customers across all our segments?
05:45Do you expect to add more markets than potentially in 26, or is it just continuing to build on some of the infrastructure you mentioned?
05:54A combination of both, actually.
05:56We're going to go deeper, not wider.
05:59But that said, we're doing UAE next year, and we're not doing direct.
06:03We're doing trade partnership, right?
06:05Comparament is partnership.
06:06We're doing a lot of markets like Hong Kong next year through partnership.
06:09Because, again, we want to be in every major trade route for Africa.
06:13Where money flows from Africa, we need to be there.
06:15Because if we're making our customers to get paid and pay, we have to enable that corridor for them.
06:20For example, here, PCI, we're able to expand from Nigeria to the UK and other regions this year, actually.
06:29And we enable that growth because we are also in the UK, or we're in the UK through our partner.
06:34And that's what we bring to the table.
06:35We have to be, for our customers, we have to be where they want to be to actually protect their business and enable their growth.
06:42G.B., we're seeing a number of fintechs on the continent reach unicorn status in addition to Flutterwave.
06:50I wonder if you look at the current environment right now and see potentially opportunities for other types of startups to join this very exclusive group.
07:00What does the environment sort of – is it conducive enough for other sectors, or is fintech going to continue to dominate, in your opinion?
07:08Actually, other sectors will start growing.
07:10You start seeing that going forward.
07:12Payment is so key and pivoted.
07:14I said that, you know, typically, if you look at how an economy is growing, three things are key.
07:19Payment, logistics, and commerce.
07:22Now, you're seeing payments have been solved in Africa, thanks to Flutterwave and other folks as well.
07:27Commerce is booming right now.
07:29So it's logistics.
07:30Right?
07:31Once those three layers, those foundational infra are built, which we're getting there, naturally, you'll see a lot more companies grow even faster than we have grown at Flutterwave.
07:40Because we are now in infrastructure, right?
07:42And that's what you see.
07:43It's like AWS.
07:44AWS is great.
07:45But you can imagine, you know, companies like OpenAI who are building on all these pipes, they will be faster.
07:51And that's what you see.
07:52So I anticipate that you see a lot more unicorns, global companies growing massively from Africa in the next decade.
08:00That's for sure.
08:01We've seen, just on that, we've seen a number of African companies raise substantial amounts this year.
08:06We talk about how a lot of fundraising has really actually risen back to some of the levels we saw years past.
08:14Where is Flutterwave at in fundraising?
08:15Flutterwave is very focused on profitability right now.
08:20We're not hunting the next capital run deliberately because, obviously, we want to be sustainable as a company.
08:26And for us, it's about compounding value, right?
08:29We're growing our business.
08:30We're growing our corridors.
08:32We're expanding our infrastructure.
08:35We're solving real problems for African businesses in Africa today.
08:39And that makes us very excited, right?
08:40So for us, it's about growing our revenue, growing our margins, getting profitable.
08:44We are solving a fundamental payment problem in Africa.
08:49And that is what we will sustain our value across funding cycle.
08:52So we're not funding cycle dependent anymore, which is great.
08:56We're rather focused on how do we be sustainable and we're very key to the African economy.
09:03And I know you said the focus is profitability and building deeper, not wider.
09:08But is there still an eventual IPO on the horizon?
09:12A lot of investors are watching closely.
09:14How far out do you think that potentially is?
09:17So IPO for me is a milestone destination, right?
09:22We're already operating right now with public market discipline as a company, right?
09:25We are thinking about sustainability, profitability.
09:28So for us, we will not go and raise capital as a clear need for us to do so, right?
09:33We're already at the hoarded governance and compliance level at IPO-grade infrastructure, right?
09:39So for us, the important thing is trust.
09:41We want to build trust with our clients, with our partners, our regulators, and our ecosystem, right?
09:47And if we do choose to go public, it will be when we are ready.
09:50Not because market is asking for it.
09:51Our market is noisy.
09:52Our goal is, you know, we want to basically keep on operating with our current public market discipline, focusing on being profitable and sustainable.
10:03Do you worry that some of the other competitors, though, might, you know, maybe oust you in terms of being a dominant player on the continent?
10:11I don't think so.
10:12I don't worry about our competition at all.
10:15For one big reason, Theta Wave is now infrastructure.
10:18Theta Wave is also one of the most innovative companies you can ever imagine across the continent.
10:24A couple of days ago, we launched a Naira card, an AfriGo Naira card in Nigeria, powered by Odyssey on SendApp, right?
10:34SendApp is a Remittance product.
10:36And that's the first time a Remittance company will launch a Naira card for, you know, travelers into Nigeria this December and going forward.
10:44That was built in less than seven to eight weeks.
10:48And it's live, completed.
10:51It's doing great with our customers.
10:53The recession has been beautiful.
10:55That is a level of our innovation.
10:57Our stablecoin infrastructure that we're building is going live in pilot in the next couple of days.
11:03We'll build that in less than maybe eight weeks with our partners because we saw the gap in the market, our customer demand.
11:11That's how we're moving further away.
11:12We're very responsive to our customers.
11:14We're very innovative.
11:15And we solve real problems.
11:16We're not solving for hype.
11:18We're solving for actual Africa economic gap that we see on the continent, right?
11:24So we are very, our customers feel what we do for them, right?
11:29They know how much we enable their business.
11:30And we're very, very deep in the value chain for our customers.
11:33And that is what is key.
11:34So we don't worry about competition, you know?
11:37Rather, we're thinking about how can we do much more for our customers to be so, so sticky with them in our quest to be profitable for a long time.
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