Flutterwave, one of Africa’s unicorn ventures, has decided to discontinue its virtual card service, Barter, starting on March 12 2024.
Barter was launched in 2017 in collaboration with global payments company, VISA. The product was designed to facilitate personal and small merchant payments within Africa and across its borders and offered a virtual card service to its users.
The decision to halt the product comes after a year-long pause to enhance its services with Flutter citing evolving customer preferences and changing market dynamics.
The platform will cease all operations on March 12 2024.
“The decision to sunset Barter was based on a comprehensive analysis of market trends and evolving customer needs,” the fintech said.
Flutterwave is said to be shifting focus towards its enterprise and remittance business segments. The fintech company had informed its customers to withdraw their funds from the app over the course of the past month. In an email communique, the fintech notified users that their Barter accounts would become inactive after March 12 2024, rendering accessing their funds impossible.
“While retail remains important to us, our immediate focus is optimising services for businesses and remittance solutions,” the fintech said.
This announcement comes on the heels of the recent temporary closure of Disha, another platform under the Flutterwave umbrella. This strategic decision reflects their pivot towards enterprise and remittance solutions. The company has been conducting rebranding efforts and global expansion of their Send Product into markets such as Canada, the US, and India.
REGULATION | Malawi Reserve Bank Grants International Money Transfer License to Flutterwave
Local and diaspora Malawians can now use Flutterwave’s cross-border remittance solution, Send App, to conduct international payments through a respected platform that is one of… pic.twitter.com/CeXhQk6BLW
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In the United States, Flutterwave has obtained money transmission licenses, allowing it to offer remittance services in 29 states across the country.
“Everything is growing very fast,” said Flutterwave Founder and CEO, Olugbenga Agboola, in a recent interview.
“Send app is growing at over 100%, and our portfolio of business is growing massively. So we have been growing massively YoY now.”
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