Africa’s most valuable fintech, Flutterwave, is said to be considering an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the US and Nigeria.
The IPO would see Flutterwave’s shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange and possibly the Nigerian Exchange.
Sources familiar with the situation told Bloomberg that the recent recruitments into key positions at Flutterwave were all in preparations for the IPO.
Recall that Flutterwave had recently hired Oneal Bhamban, a former VP at American Express, as its new Chief Financial Officer. Also, the company hired Gurbhej Dhillon, a former MD at Goldman Sachs, as its new Chief Technology Officer.
But the planned IPO could be delayed given the generally bearish sentiment across global stock markets.
Besides that, Flutterwave has been grappling with a slew of reputation-damaging allegations and regulatory hurdles since the start of 2022. And the PR nightmare this has elicited is also expected to delay the planned IPO.
According to corporate lawyer and African startup investor Raj Kulasingam, global investors are not ready to buy the company’s shares amid its current reputation crisis. He told Bloomberg:
“The Flutterwave story was one of an African fintech and it being the leader for Africa as the next frontier for fintech and venture investors. Then the unravelling of that story started and it hasn’t stopped yet. With all of this, I don’t believe that the international public markets are ready for a Flutterwave IPO.”
The unravelling story Mr Kulasingam referred to is the one involving alleged toxic work culture, including harassment/bullying from top executives.
A former employee named Gbemisola Ajayi has already sued the company for $800,000. She argued that the amount is how much she lost when she was denied a stock award entitled to her after she left the company in Q1 2020.
In response to the suit, Flutterwave said Ms Ajayi did not meet the conditions for the stock award.
Flutterwave has also been grappling with regulatory hurdles. Last month, a Kenyan high court froze some bank accounts operated by Flutterwave. Business Insider Africa had reported that the bank accounts have a collective sum of $52.5 million in them, funds which the Kenyan agency suspected were proceeds of fraud. But Flutterwave vehemently denied this allegation, describing it as a calculated attempt to smear its reputation.
Also, Governor Patrick Ngoroje of the Central Bank of Kenya warned that Flutterwave was not licensed to operate remittance services in the East African country.
