FLUTTERWAVE
Flutterwave an African fintech Unicorn was founded by Olugbenga Agboola, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, and Adeleke Adekoya in 2016 with headquarters in San Francisco and operations in eleven African countries including Nigeria. It helps to bridge the gap in payment processing time between Africa and the rest of the world by using one API (Application Programming Interface) which acts as an intermediary that allows different software applications to communicate and interact with each other. This assists businesses in Africa to receive and make payments across borders seamlessly. Flutterwave aims to help Africans build and grow global businesses that can make and accept payments across Africa and globally.
FLUTTERWAVE TRADE FAIR
Over the past two years, Flutterwave in partnership with Pages by Dammy has hosted three astounding trade fairs which were major trade fairs and exhibitions showcasing the high growth and businesses of SMEs that use the Flutterwave for Business and Flutterwave Store. Flutterwave trade fair brings people together and helps them network. This year’s event was no exception as many people came together and shopped from various stores ranging from fashion to beauty, hair, and drinks.
FLUTTERWAVE BATTLE OF THE BRANDS
This year’s Flutterwave Trade Fair 4.0 was titled ‘’Battle of the Brands’’ and was motivated by pages by Dammy, Flutterwave’s small growth business partner who thought of doing something differently this year. Dammy said looking into the data, the top-performing merchants are fashion businesses that sell both locally and internationally and make over $100,000 revenue monthly. Flutterwave trade fair being a CSR initiative thought of ways to show love and support for fashion businesses by making them battle it out in the Flutterwave battle of the brands and by supporting ready-to-wear brands on a small scale while aiming to grow bigger.
The theme for this year was ‘’Festival of Colours’’. 10 brands were competing for the grand prize. Each brand had to interpret and express the theme of this year’s event with Flutterwave’s brand colors which come in six primary colors. They are Mustard, Orange, Cream, Green, Pink, and Navy Blue that show creativity, authenticity, time management, quality assurance, and fittings.
The Judges for this event were three fashion experts- Noble Igwe @noble_igwe, Obis obis.ora, Nonye @pweetywings. Each brand was judged based on the creativity of designs, quality control, fittings to models, and Authenticity or originality of styles. The brands didn’t make it easy for the judges with their exceptional designs and gave the audience a nice show with people interacting. Eventually, the Judges picked the top five and narrowed it down to the top three and one winner. The first runner-up won N300,000 while the second runner-up won N200,000. Bod.ng emerged as the winner of the maiden Edition of Flutterwave Battle of the Brands and went home with N1,000,000, an exclusive swag box, and some other merchandise.
Speaking to Bukola the creative director of Bod.ng said Bod has been in business officially since 2020 and has been using Flutterwave since inception. The inspiration for her collection was the right balance between the brief given by Flutterwave and showcasing different looks ranging from corporate wear, casual, bridal, and a playful look that speaks to her brand and customers.
Flutterwave trade fair brings people together and helps them network. This year’s event was no exception as a lot of people came together and shopped from various stores ranging from fashion to beauty, hair, and drinks while having a good time.
CONCLUSION
Flutterwave Battle of the Brands was an exceptional event around Fintech, and Fashion. There are so many opportunities around Fintech and Fashion and I hope to see more fashion support from Flutterwave on a larger scale.
Where you in attendance? What did you think of the event?
