Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company, has announced a strategic investment from Circle Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Circle Internet Group . The deal follows Flutterwave’s participation in the launch of the Circle Payments Network in 2025.
The investment backs Flutterwave’s push to embed USDC settlement directly into the payment flows businesses already use, letting merchants collect payments locally and settle in USDC. The company says this cuts delays and costs while enabling near-instant settlement outside traditional banking hours.
Flutterwave is positioning stablecoins as core financial infrastructure for fast, reliable settlement across Africa, building USDC support within what it describes as a compliance-first framework designed to align with existing regulatory requirements and enterprise operating standards.
Flutterwave founder and CEO Olugbenga “GB” Agboola said the investment backs the infrastructure that will power the next era of money movement from Africa. “Stablecoins like USDC are no longer an experiment; they are becoming core financial infrastructure,” he said, adding that embedding USDC settlement into the company’s payments infrastructure lets businesses “move money at the speed of the internet.”
Global stablecoin circulation now exceeds $300 billion, with Africa among the fastest-growing regions for adoption. By expanding into a multi-rail system spanning fiat, cards, bank transfers and stablecoins, Flutterwave says it’s giving businesses the option to pick the fastest, cheapest and most reliable settlement route for their needs.
The investment lands weeks after Flutterwave closed a Series E round in mid-June that pushed its valuation to roughly $3.2 billion, with blockchain payments firm Ripple taking an equity stake as part of that round to help integrate Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin into Flutterwave’s infrastructure. Founded in 2016 and now operating in more than 35 African countries, Flutterwave has raised over $500 million to date and says it has processed more than $50 billion in payment volume for over a million businesses, including global platforms like Uber and Booking.com.
The Circle Ventures deal extends that stablecoin push beyond Ripple’s RLUSD to Circle’s USDC, reflecting a broader trend of African payments firms building out multi-rail settlement options rather than betting on a single stablecoin issuer. It also builds on Flutterwave’s January 2026 acquisition of Nigerian open banking startup Mono and an April 2026 microlender licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria, both part of a wider push to control more of the payments stack directly rather than through partner banks.
Circle Internet Group, the issuer of USDC, has been expanding its enterprise reach through the Circle Payments Network, a settlement network for regulated financial institutions that Flutterwave joined at launch in 2025.
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