Flutterwave to close down virtual card service ‘Barter’ to focus on enterprise and remittance business sectors

Africa’s largest startup, Flutterwave, has announced plans to close down its virtual card service, Barter which was first introduced in 2017. The company is making the move to concentrate more on its core business and remittance sectors. Flutterwave notified its customers to take out their money from the app during the past four weeks.

The decision to shutter Barter resulted from a meticulous analysis of market patterns and shifting customer requirements, Flutterwave revealed in an email to TechCabal.

The emphasis is now on enterprise services and remittance for Flutterwave, which have shown to be more successful. Back in October, the company disclosed to TechCabal that enterprise services constituted the main source of its revenue. Meanwhile, Barter only represented about 1% of the $2 billion worth of transactions the company processed, according to information shared by one of the co-founders with Quartz Africa in 2018.

The company expressed that while the retail sector is still a crucial part of its operations, the immediate focus will be on fine-tuning services for businesses and remittance solutions.

The fintech’s remittance products, namely Send and Swap, are being positioned to seize a substantial portion of Africa’s $54 billion remittance market. However, it is yet to be clear how far these products have progressed.

Barter has been a historical product since its introduction in 2017, being among the earliest tech startups to facilitate international payments for Nigerians.

Despite its pioneering status, the platform was not without its challenges. In 2022, it was inaccessible for several weeks due to updates from Union54, its card-issuing partner from Zambia which was faced with a fraud attempt worth $1.2 billion. Additionally, users had grappled with platform downtime and rejection of cards by various merchants, including Netflix, Facebook, PayPal, and Apple Music.