Flutterwave CFO, Oneal Bhambani resigns amidst IPO plans
Oneal Bhambani has stepped down from his position as chief financial officer at Flutterwave, just over a year after joining the company.
Oneal Bhambani announced on Tuesday that he has stepped down from his role as the chief financial officer (CFO) of Flutterwave, Africa's leading payments company. "Last week, I made the difficult decision to end my tenure at the company," he said in a LinkedIn post.
"Rebecca and Oscar joined Flutterwave, alongside me, to head Controllership and FP&A respectively from American Express. It truly was an honour and privilege to work with them again," Bhambani noted.
Bhambani, who previously served in the same role at American Express and Kabbage, joined Flutterwave in June 2022—a few months after the company secured a $250 million Series D at a valuation of over $3 billion.
Announcing his appointment at the time, Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, founder and CEO of Flutterwave, said: "His track record of operating finance to enable scale and innovation with listed company standard financial controls will help us accelerate our growth as we continue to meet the needs of our expanding global customer base."
Given that his appointment occurred a few months after the company had been accused of financial misconduct, some analysts contended that Bhambani's hiring was imperative. They argued that since the scandal primarily centred on financial issues, an experienced CFO could have either prevented or more effectively controlled the problems.
Earlier this year, allegations of financial misconduct against Flutterwave in Kenya were dismissed. Subsequently, the fintech company has initiated a series of strategic hires to facilitate its expansion in the East African nation. Moreover, it has unveiled intentions to invest $50 million in the country. In August, Flutterwave received name approval from the Central Bank of Kenya, a significant step towards obtaining its remittance and payment licenses.
In August, Flutterwave partnered with IndusInd, the sixth largest bank in India by assets, to expand its remittance product, Send App to the South Asian country. Before the expansion announcement, Agboola said that it was moving forward with plans for an initial public offering (IPO), which it first publicly indicated in 2022.
"The timing of the listing will be determined by many factors. Currently, we’re dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. Like any company in our position, we consider multiple strategic opportunities. I can’t share any details regarding listing venues," Agboola said.
Flutterwave processes over 500,000 daily payments and operates across 34 African countries, accepting payments in more than 30 different currencies. The platform offers a wide array of payment options, exceeding 15, and it receives over 20 million API calls each day.
Additionally, as of February 2022, Flutterwave's e-commerce solution amassed a network of more than 30,000 merchants. Their rapidly growing product, Flutterwave Send, which debuted in December 2021, processed 4,729 transactions amounting to $3.6 million in its first full month of operation. This product attracted customers from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Nigeria.
By March 2021, Flutterwave had processed 140 million transactions totaling over $9 billion. By February 2022, the number of transactions processed had surged by more than 40%, reaching 200 million transactions, with the transaction value soaring by 78% to $16 billion. During the same period, the number of businesses utilising Flutterwave's diverse payment methods globally tripled, growing from 290,000 to 900,000, according to Contrary Research.
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