Flutterwave adopts Polygon blockchain to power cross-border payments

Flutterwave, Africa’s largest payments infrastructure company, is betting on stablecoins to make cross-border transactions faster and cheaper through a multi-year partnership with Polygon Labs, a blockchain software company.  Through the partnership, Flutterwave will use Polygon’s blockchain network to enable instant, low-cost settlements across more than 30 African countries, in what both companies describe as one of the largest real-world stablecoin deployments in emerging markets.

Founded in 2016, Flutterwave connects global businesses to Africa’s financial systems, processing over $40 billion in payments across 34 countries and supporting more than 150 currencies. The company’s new partnership marks its biggest step yet toward integrating blockchain technology into its operations as it looks to fix one of Africa’s most persistent financial challenges: slow, expensive, and fragmented cross-border transactions.

Polygon’s Proof-of-Stake blockchain will serve as Flutterwave’s default network for cross-border settlements. The rollout will begin in 2025 with select enterprise clients before expanding to all Flutterwave for Business users and the Send App in 2026.

Despite handling billions in remittances and business payments each year, Africa’s payment corridors remain some of the most costly in the world. According to the World Bank, sending money to sub-Saharan Africa costs an average of 8%per transaction, nearly three times the global average. Settlement delays can stretch for days, limiting trade, cash flow, and access to capital for millions of small businesses.

Flutterwave and Polygon say their collaboration aims to address these bottlenecks by using stablecoins to settle transactions in seconds and reduce costs to a fraction of a cent. Stablecoin use in Africa has grown rapidly in recent years, driven by remittances and digital commerce. stablecoin transaction volumes across the continent exceeded $50 billion in 2024, accounting for more than 40% of all crypto value received in the region.

“Businesses in emerging economies process billions in cross-border payments annually, yet still face high costs and slow settlement times,” said Olugbenga Agboola, Flutterwave’s CEO and founder. “By partnering with Polygon, we’re introducing a solution that makes international payments even more simple and affordable than many local ones. This revolution will unlock new economic opportunities across the continent.”

Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron said Flutterwave’s adoption of its blockchain represents a major vote of confidence in stablecoins as a foundation for global payments. “Thriving African businesses lose revenue each year to slow, expensive cross-border payments. Flutterwave saw what we see: stablecoins on Polygon can advance settlement times from days to seconds and high fees into pennies,” Boiron said.

The first phase will target Flutterwave’s multinational clients, such as Uber and Audiomack. A second phase will extend the benefits to consumers through the Send App.

For Polygon, the partnership adds to a growing list of institutional milestones, including powering BlackRock’s BUIDL Fund tokenisation through Securitize and supporting major stablecoin transfers globally. For Flutterwave, it signals a strategic bet on blockchain as the next frontier in digital payments.