Nigeria-based Fintech company FLutterwave has partnered with global payment platform PayPal to enable African merchants to receive payments from over 300 million PayPal users.

“The collaboration will be instrumental in supporting SMEs and freelancers to overcome the many challenges presented by the highly fragmented and complex payment and banking infrastructure, as well as connecting them with more than 377 million PayPal account holders globally,” reads a statement from Flutterwave.

PayPal has not been fully available for merchants in Africa to receive payments and the move offers an opportunity to merchants to leverage cross border payments.

Statista estimates that ecommerce in Africa generated US$16.5-billion in 2017. Revenues at the end of 2021 are expected to be well over US$24-billion and reach US$29-billion by 2022.

Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave, said: “By working with PayPal, we can further strengthen our commitment to our customers and service users as we will be enabling them to transact and expand their business operations to reach new markets. PayPal’s global reach is unrivalled and collaborating with them allows our customers to explore new markets where PayPal is embedded.”

The alliance follows a Series C fund of US$170-million raised by Flutterwave, pushing its valuation to over US$1-billion.

The round, led by Avenir Growth Capital and Tiger Global Management LLC, is touted as one of the biggest funding rounds in Africa.

Flutterwave said the funds will enable it to execute an ambitious growth and expansion strategy, including entry into new markets.

To date the company has processed over 140 million transactions worth over US$$9-billion.