FLUTTERWAVE SHUTS DOWN BARTER AS IT REFOCUSES ON ENTERPRISE AND REMITTANCE BUSINESS
Flutterwave, Africa’s largest startup, is discontinuing Barter, a virtual card service introduced in 2017. The fintech company is shifting its focus towards its enterprise and remittance business segments. Customers have been advised to withdraw their funds from the app over the past month.
The choice to phase out Barter stemmed from a thorough examination of market trends and the changing requirements of customers, as communicated in an email to TechCabal by the fintech company.
Flutterwave is doubling down on proven winners by focusing on remittance and enterprise. In October, the fintech told TechCabal enterprise services was its biggest revenue driver. In comparison, Barter only accounted for about 1% of the company’s $2 billion-worth transactions, one of the company’s cofounders told Quartz Africa in 2018.
“While maintaining the significance of retail, our primary emphasis at the moment is on refining services for businesses and enhancing remittance solutions,” stated the company.
Meanwhile, Flutterwave’s remittance products, Send and Swap, aim to capture a significant market share in Africa’s $54 billion remittance market. It is unclear how much progress both products have made.
Read also: Flutterwave’s new product Swap wants to solve Nigeria’s FX problems
Barter is a storied product. When it launched in 2017, it was one of the first tech startups to offer Nigerians the ability to make international payments.
“Barter will leverage on Flutterwave’s virtual card API and platform to allow users create an unlimited number of virtual dollar cards for single or repeat transactions,” said a TechCabal Daily announcing its launch in March 2017. But the product has seen its share of troubles.
In 2022, Barter was unavailable for weeks because of “an update from the company’s card partner.”That partner was Union54, the Zambian card issuer that got hit with a $1.2 billion chargeback fraud attempt.
Customers also complained about downtime issues with the platform and card rejections by merchants, including Netflix, Facebook, PayPal and Apple Music.
From the News Source: TechCarbal
