Circle Ventures Backs Flutterwave to Expand USDC Settlement in Africa

Circle Ventures Backs Flutterwave to Expand USDC Settlement in Africa

Quick Reads

• Flutterwave has received a strategic investment from Circle Ventures. The investment arm of USDC issuer Circle to let African businesses collect payments in local currencies like naira or shillings and instantly settle those transactions in USDC, a digital dollar stablecoin.

• What makes this deal particularly interesting is that it comes just three weeks after Ripple Circle’s direct competitor also invested in Flutterwave and secured the role of default stablecoin for its products.

• Stablecoin usage across the continent grew 52% in the year to June 2025, and global stablecoin circulation has crossed $300 billion.

Flutterwave has secured a strategic investment from Circle Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Circle Internet Group (NYSE: CRCL), to embed USDC settlement directly into its payments infrastructure across Africa giving merchants the ability to collect locally and settle in digital dollars within minutes.

Flutterwave Bets on Two Stablecoins at Once

The Flutterwave USDC settlement integration follows the company’s participation in the Circle Payments Network in 2025 and deepens a relationship that now carries equity stakes on both sides. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal arrives roughly three weeks after Ripple took a strategic equity stake in Flutterwave’s Series E round, valuing the company at $3.2 billion and naming RLUSD as the default settlement asset across its stablecoin products. By taking capital from both Circle and Ripple within a month, Flutterwave is positioning itself as issuer-agnostic infrastructure routing flows across two competing stablecoin issuers whose tokens sit at opposite ends of the market by scale. USDC held a market capitalisation of roughly $75 billion in mid-2026, while RLUSD stood near $1.65 billion over the same period. Founder and CEO Olugbenga “GB” Agboola said the company aims to become “the default stablecoin gateway for the continent.”

The context behind the move is hard to ignore. Global stablecoin circulation now exceeds $300 billion, with Africa emerging as one of the fastest-growing regions for adoption. Sub-Saharan Africa received more than $205 billion in on-chain value between July 2024 and June 2025, a 52% year-on-year increase, driven by persistent currency volatility, the high cost of traditional remittance corridors, and limited access to dollar liquidity. Flutterwave is not alone in Circle’s African network Onafriq and Yellow Card are also partners in the Circle Payments Network, meaning Flutterwave’s largest continental rivals are pursuing the same USDC settlement strategy in parallel.

Founded in 2016, Flutterwave has processed one billion transactions across 34 African countries.