-
Y Combinator lists Flutterwave its most valuable startup out of Africa
-
Flutterwave the only African startup on the list of 102 startups
-
The first startup from Africa to make the list
American seed funding accelerator, Y Combinator has released the list of its most valuable 102 companies for the year 2019. Valued at $150 million, Flutterwave made the 97th position, making it the most valuable company out of Africa.
The list was put together to help partners, potential employees and late-stage investors know a broader set of Y Combinator (YC) companies.
The companies on the list are sorted using valuation. Y Combinator has always maintained that valuation is not the best way to measure a company’s value in short term. Nevertheless, it adopted the approach for the ranking because it’s the most commonly available metric used to compare companies in the startup world.
Each of the 102 companies on the list is valued at 150 million at the minimum, with the combination of their value being $115 billion. Put together, all the companies on the list have created 50,000 jobs, with Flutterwave creating 120 (0.24%).
About Flutterwave
Rave, one of Flutterwave’s digital productsFounded in 2016 by Olugbenga Agboola and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Flutterwave is a Nigerian Fintech startup committed to making payments easy for Africans. So far, the company has raised a total of $20.1 million, the latest of such funding being in October last year.
Not only is Flutterwave the most valuable African startup on the list, it is also the only Startup from the region. The region with the highest representatives on the list is Asia with 4.9%. Europe and America follow with 3.9% and 2.9% respectively.
Since it was founded in 2005, Y Combinator has invested more than 2,000 times in startups all over the world. It published a list of its most valuable companies for the first time in 2018. As much as most of the companies from the 2018 list still made it to this recent list, this is the first time an African startup is included.
A Sectoral Distribution of Startups on the list
-
B2B Software and Services – 51%
-
Financial Technology and Services – 16% (Flutterwave belongs here)
-
Consumer Goods and Services – 11%
-
Education – 4%
-
Consumer Media – 3%
-
Biotech – 3%
-
Automotive – 3%
-
Real Estate – 2%
-
Healthcare – 2%
-
Construction – 2%
-
Aerospace – 2%
-
Energy and Environment – 1%