Flutterwave, a digital payment platform has acquired Disha, a content creator platform for an undisclosed amount.
The acquisition represents Flutterwave’s first public acquisition since it was launched in 2016 to tackle Africa’s payments problems and will help to reposition Disha in terms of driving both value for creators and revenue to sustain the business.
While the acquisition is expected to bolster Disha’s payments checkout process and grow the platform’s base by allowing users to make transactions in over 150 currencies and 34 countries worldwide, Flutterwaves will also gain by taking part in the $100 billion global creator economy.
Founded by Evans Akanno, Rufus Oyemade and Blessing Abeng in 2019, the platform targets global creators and influencers as well as provide them with tools to create a one-page site to curate and share links, content, portfolios and a checkout system to receive payments.
Despite that Disha had users globally, its revenues were low, as it was making slightly above $1,000 in monthly recurring revenue and the little revenues and limited resources could no longer sustain the business.
In February, Disha announced it was closing shop alongside its 20,000 users but again reconsidered to explore the option of giving up the control of the firm to Futterwave.
Commenting on the deal, ex-CTO Oyemade said, “We decided to shut down the company because we ran out of resources to continue driving the very valid vision we had. With Flutterwave, we now have a way to drive both value for creators and revenue to sustain the business. We are happy to have gotten the call from Flutterwave, which actually kept hopes alive.”
Flutterwave however says Disha will continue to be an independent product with a distinct brand and operations as it plans to focus on features and integrations that help creators easily schedule meetings and exhibitions, build sustainable income through subscriptions and leverage emerging technologies in the creator space.
Flutterwave CEO Olugbengba Agboola said, “Recently, we have diversified into building tools that will help freelancers, businesses and now creators grow. We saw Disha as an opportunity to capture a new market of indie creators that need innovative tools to showcase their craft and get paid. This acquisition cements our place as a growth partner for freelancers and businesses. For us, Flutterwave Store is to small businesses what Disha is to creators.”
There has been an increasing appetite to create, own, sell or share digital experiences such as NFTs lately and Disha is well-positioned to facilitate transactions around owning and selling these digital experiences as most of its customers are based in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe.
Riding on this, Flutterwave is hoping to leverage this opportunity to explore into NFT space where more than $10 billion was spent in just the third quarter.
