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Flutterwave has announced the acquisition of Mono, an African open banking and account-based payments company.

The move is aimed at strengthening its payments infrastructure, the financial technology firm (fintech) said in a statement on Monday.

Flutterwave said the transaction deepens its long-term commitment to building a connected, interoperable financial system for Africa and positions open banking as a core pillar in the evolution of alternative payment methods across the region.

The company said Mono’s API-driven platform enables secure access to financial data, identity verification, and account-to-account payments — capabilities adjudged to be critical as African markets move toward more trusted, data-led financial services.

Flutterwave said Mono will continue to operate independently under the terms of the acquisition, with no changes to its leadership, team, or day-to-day operations.

“Flutterwave’s stake enables strategic alignment rather than operational control, allowing Mono to maintain its pace of innovation while contributing its open banking infrastructure to Flutterwave’s broader payments ecosystem,” the statement reads.

“The acquisition reflects a growing recognition that the next phase of Africa’s payments growth will be driven less by card rails and more by bank-based, authenticated, and locally relevant payment methods.

“By integrating Mono’s open banking APIs, Flutterwave strengthens its ability to support faster onboarding, improved verification, reduced fraud, and seamless account-to-account payments.

“The collaboration also creates a clear pathway for expanding into richer alternative payment methods, authenticated payment flows, and, over time, open banking-enabled stablecoin use cases.

“It also carries implications well beyond product expansion. Businesses gain access to infrastructure that simplifies compliance-heavy processes such as identity checks and bank verification, while improving conversion and reliability at scale.”

The company said developers and partners will benefit from a unified environment where payments and financial data coexist, reducing complexity and accelerating time-to-market.

According to the statement, the integration strengthens Flutterwave’s vertical depth and long-term value creation through improved margins, stronger customer retention, and differentiated infrastructure.

“Regulatory stakeholders benefit from increased standardization, stronger data protection, and adherence to global security frameworks, including PCI-DSS and ISO 27001,” Flutterwave said.

Commenting on the acquisition, Olugbenga Agboola, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Flutterwave, said payments, data, and trust must function as a unified system to support Africa’s financial future.

“Open banking provides the connective tissue, and Mono has built critical infrastructure in this space,” Agboola was quoted as saying.

“This acquisition allows us to expand what’s possible for businesses operating across African markets, while staying grounded in security, compliance, and local relevance.”

Abdulhamid Hassan, the founder and CEO of Mono, said the acquisition allows the company to build the infrastructure layer that powers the next generation of African fintech at the speed and scale the continent deserves.

“We built Mono to unlock Africa’s Open Banking potential, and since our first partnership with Flutterwave in 2021 and working together over the years, we’ve seen the power of a coordinated effort towards this goal,” Hassan also said.

“Mono’s capabilities across financial data access, direct bank payments, and identity verification, combined with Flutterwave’s unmatched scale and global reach, create something more defensible and comprehensive.”

The statement said the investment comes at a time when Africa’s digital economy requires infrastructure that is open and trustworthy, signalling a strategic shift toward interoperable, data-driven systems designed to support long-term growth across the continent.