Flutterwave Discontinues Its Barter Service, Redirects  focus towards Enterprise And Remittance Business 

Flutterwave, Africa’s fintech unicorn, has announced the shut down of its Barter, a virtual card service it launched in 2017, as it focuses on its enterprise and remittance business segments. 

Announcing the shutdown, Flutterwave said, 

“While retail remains important to us, our immediate focus is optimizing services for businesses and remittance solutions”.

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.

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.