Flutterwave Express Interest in Acquiring British Fintech Railsr

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Flutterwave Express Interest in Acquiring British Fintech Railsr
Flutterwave Express Interest in Acquiring British Fintech Railsr
British, prominent fintech firm is in talks with competing suitors, including Africa’s largest payments technology firm, Flutterwave, for a sale that will offer a significant discount over previous funding rounds.

According to Sky News reports, Railsr (previously known as Railsbank) is collecting bids from potential buyers, including Flutterwave, which is valued at billions of dollars, and some sources can confirm that a corporation of existing Railsr venture capitalist also sought to acquire a company specializing in so-called embedded financial solutions such as banking services, credit cards, and digital wallets.

One of the insiders disclosed that there was “heavy competition for the asset”. The news of rival offers for Railsr keeps coming, as there is a growing wave of consolidation in the fintech sector due to the challenges of lack of funding needed to stand alone.

Railsr also raised a bridge funding last year by itself which was aimed to provide enough capital to help them achieve a sale. While Railsr has also been working with bankers at FT Partners on a selection of strategy options which includes outright sale for several months.

The company announced the completion of a $46m Series C funding round last autumn, but it refused to disclose that this took place at a valuation of about $250m, which is below their earlier fundraising.

However, Railsr has also been acquiring some assets from the collapsed German company Wirecard, and it secured a coup last year when it named Rick Haythornwaite, former chairman of Mastercard and current chair of Ocado and the AA, as its chairman.

Also recently, it made a couple of staff redundant just like its many tech peers.

Railsr founder, Nigel Verdon, had previously claimed it was “transforming the finance industry in the same way that Apple did to the music industry when they created iTunes” which is yet to be achieved, and although Railsr has raised over $100m in equity funding with backing from investors including visa, it is yet to provide a comment about the rumor of a sale.