The ongoing pandemic has caused a lot of difficulties for businesses worldwide, especially businesses with no online presence whatsoever. Countries closing up their borders and going on lockdowns meant that a lot of stores lost the vital foot traffic they rely on to earn each day.
Businesses in Africa found a solution to their problem thanks to Flutterwave, a fintech company offering seamless payment solutions. Flutterwave has helped thousands of businesses in the continent to set up online stores and even payment and delivery options for customers.
The company actually has personal ties to the continent that many might not know about. Its co-founder and CEO Olugbenga Agboola is from Nigeria.
Get know more about Flutterwave and its co-founder and CEO, Olugbenga Agboola, in this week's #TechCEO feature.
Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola Fast Facts
Olugbenga Agboola was born in Lagos, Nigeria, and has an MBA from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), according to an article by Fortune.
Prior to co-founding his own company, Agboola worked at fintech company PayPal as an application engineer. He also worked at Google Wallet, which is now known as Google Pay, and focused on product management.
As the co-founder and CEO of Flutterwave, Agboola became a part of Forbes 40 Under 40 List for 2020 as well as Time Magazine's Time100 Next List. According to Time Magazine, the list is made up of "the emerging leaders from around the world who are shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership."
What is Flutterwave?
Olugbenga Agboola, CEO @theflutterwave talking about the future of payments https://t.co/Wh0DYqvyFX is helping create with their complete payment solution. #DevFest #DevFestLagos pic.twitter.com/HBT13kTrpM
— GDG Lagos #DevFestLagos (@gdglagos) November 11, 2019
Olugbenga Agboola co-founded Flutterwave in 2016. The Flutterwave website describes itself as "one platform that lets you sell wherever your customers are - online, in‑person, anywhere in the world, and everywhere in between."
Agboola's company is headquartered both in San Francisco, California, and Lagos, Nigeria, according to the Fortune article.
Flutterwave users can create and manage their own custom virtual cards, sell online via the Flutterwave store, and even register and incorporate businesses from anywhere.
Sellers can also use Flutterwave to send invoices to customers' emails or Whatsapp accounts and even have access to loans to grow businesses.
Related Article: How to Support E-Commerce Channel Development
Helping Africa Businesses During the Pandemic
The Time Magazine Time100 Next writeup for Olugbenga Agboola talks about how Flutterwave has helped thousands of small businesses in Africa during the pandemic. Time describes the company as one that is "known for helping companies process customers' online transactions during checkout."
Flutterwave helped thousands of businesses in Africa who lost foot traffic during the pandemic set up digital stores. Flutterwave also helped sellers arrange for delivery and payment options that made it easier for their customers to transact with them.
Flutterwave is now in 17 countries in Africa, according to Time, but Olugbenga Agboola plans on expanding his company "so that a customer in South Africa, for example, can seamlessly use her Kenyan digital wallet to buy products in Senegal."
Also Read: Impact Of COVID On Payment Solutions Creates FinTech Gap
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Written by Isabella James
