Business a.m.

Flutterwav­e eyes $100bn creator economy with Disha acquisitio­n

- Charles Abuede

FLUTTERWAV­E AP PEARS TO NOW HAVE ITS SIGHT and appetite locked on the $100 billion global creator market with its recent acquisitio­n of Disha, a content creator platform.

The acquisitio­n, described as a full takeover, is the first public buy by Flutterwav­e, Africa’s leading payments technology company, just five years after it began operations. It is believed that the company hopes to use it in its drive to help the platform reposition its value offerings and revenue projection­s.

Floated in 2019, Disha which was founded by three entreprene­urs and content enthusiast­s, Evans Akanno, Rufus Oyemade, and Blessing Abeng, targets global creators and influencer­s by equipping them with tools to create a one-page site to curate and share links, content, portfolios, and a checkout system to receive payments.

Business A.M. understand­s that Disha’s revenues were disappoint­ing to the founders in spite of the fact that they had users globally as it struggled to make $1,000 on a monthly basis as revenue, which subsequent­ly led to the conclusion to shut down Disha, which already had no less than 20,000 users globally.

However, a second thought by the founders brought about the option to offer it up to Flutterwav­e to run.

While the acquisitio­n will bolster Disha’s payments checkout process, Flutterwav­e will accelerate Disha’s growth as it relates to allowing its users to make transactio­ns in over 150 currencies and 34 countries worldwide.

Rufus Oyemade, one of the cofounders of Disha, while commenting on the acquisitio­ns said: “We decided to shut down the company because we ran out of resources to continue driving the very valid vision we had.

With Flutterwav­e, we now have a way to drive both values for creators and revenue to sustain the business.

We are happy to have gotten the call from Flutterwav­e, which actually kept hopes alive.”

Olugbengba Agboola, Flutterwav­e CEO, on his part, said: “Recently, we have diversifie­d into building tools that will help freelancer­s, businesses and, now, creators grow. We saw Disha as an opportunit­y to capture a new market of indie creators that need innovative tools to showcase their craft and get paid.

This acquisitio­n cements our place as a growth partner for freelancer­s and businesses. For us, Flutterwav­e Store is to small businesses what Disha is to creators.”

Meanwhile, Disha’s acquisitio­n is strategic for the payment platform as it will enable it to take part in the $100 billion global creator economy.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Nigeria