Nigerian payments company Flutterwave achieved unicorn status and could consider a New York listing after it closed a $170 million funding round from investors to expand its customer base. 

Its valuation is over $1 billion, the largest amount ever secured by an African tech startup. 

“We may consider the possibility of listing in New York or a possible dual listing in New York and Nigeria,” CEO and co-founder Olugbenga Agboola told Reuters on Tuesday.

“The company’s valuation is now in excess of $1 billion. The fundraise brings the total investment in Flutterwave to $225 million,” it said in a statement, highlighting Africa’s shift in digital payments as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fundraising round was led by Avenir Growth Capital and Tiger Global Management LLC. and backed by venture capital firms such as Early Capital Berrywood, Green Visor Capital, and Greycroft Capital, as well as U.S. payments company Paypal.

The fundraising round’s completion came after a year Flutterwave announced a partnership with Visa and Worldpay. 

The company offers its services in 11 African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa, and at the time of its Series B round, it had recorded 100 million processed transactions valued at over $5.4 billion for global leaders such as Uber and Booking.com. 

Similarly, in October, U.S. payments company Stripe bought Nigerian fintech business Paystack for $200 million. 

In late 2019 Visa bought a 20 percent stake in Nigerian payments company Interswitch, the main platform for the country’s business-to-business transactions.