Nigerian fintech Unicorn Flutterwave has shut down its consumer payment platform Barter, as it shifts focus on its business and remittance segments.
“While retail remains important to us, our immediate focus is optimizing services for businesses and remittance solutions”, the startup said.
In 2017, Flutterwave launched Barter as a consumer product that facilitated personal and small merchant payments within Africa and across its borders. Flutterwave was one of the first tech startups to offer Nigerians the ability to make international payments following the roll out of Barter.
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According to the startup CEO Olugbenga Agboola, he said during the launch call that the app was rolled out to simplify digital payments so that more Africans can be included in the payment revolution. This was evident in the design of the app, which helped users manage their finances and earn endless benefits from merchants.
The shutdown of Barter is coming after Flutterwave in 2022, announced plans to revamp Barter to become a platform servicing platform and money transfer needs.
In July 2022, a temporary halt occurred due to internal issues at its card provider Union54. Reports revealed that startups who had previously issued virtual Visa dollar cards provided by Barter noted that it was not reliable enough.
Last month, in an email to customers the fintech notified users to withdraw their money stating that their Barter accounts will become inactive and accessing their funds will be impossible.
Before the shutdown of Barter, the app was a lifestyle payment solution that operated globally with an initial user base in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa.
The app enabled Visa cardholders to initiate payments within the app and make online and mobile payments by attaching their card details to their GetBarter app profile while non-card carriers can generate a virtual card upon registration.
The app also enabled Visa users to receive money from any Visa card account either domestic or international.
With the shutdown of Barter, Flutterwave is doubling down on proven winners by focusing on remittance and enterprise. In October last year, the fintech disclosed that its biggest revenue driver was the enterprise segment. In comparison, Barter only accounted for about 1% of the company’s $2 billion worth of transactions.
Over the last few years, Flutterwave has doubled down on consumer payment services with new products such as Send App and Swap. The fintech remittance product aims to capture a significant market share in Africa’s $54 billion remittance market. It however remains unclear how much progress both products have made.