Flutterwave and Microsoft partner to build next-gen payments platform on Azure

Flutterwave, one of Africa’s unicorns, this week, announced a partnership with Microsoft to build its next-generation platform on Microsoft Azure, to power payments infrastructure in Africa and beyond.

Through this engagement, Flutterwave will support the accelerated growth of transactions processed on the Flutterwave platform for global clients like Uber, Netflix, and Microsoft, solidifying Azure’s role in facilitating a seamless, reliable, and secure payment experience, a statement by Flutterwave reads.

“Microsoft has been an invaluable partner, providing a platform that allows us deliver consistently high-quality services to our clients,” Olugbenga Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave said.

“As we manage high-volume payment processing, particularly during peak periods, the robustness, reliability, and scalability of Microsoft Azure become critical. As such, deepening our collaboration with Microsoft is the most logical step forward for us,” he added.

Flutterwave’s CTO, Gurbhej Dhillon said the partnership would help the company scale its products and expand its reach or merchants across the world.

Dhillon added that Microsoft Azure provides significant developer leverage for Flutterwave, “which we harness in service of our clients.”

Key Flutterwave products such as Flutterwave for Business, Send by Flutterwave, Flutterwave Store, and Flutterwave for Fintech Platform, are being developed and transitioned onto the robust Azure cloud platform. Moreover, Flutterwave uses Azure OpenAI Service capabilities, enabling the scaling of its product offerings to millions of merchants worldwide, the company wrote in its statement.

Microsoft Corporation General Manager, Mike Gaal, said Microsoft Azure has supported Flutterwave’s core operations for years now and is excited to fuel the company’s growth and innovations with this partnership.

“Our mission is to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more. Working with Flutterwave will take us a step closer to achieving our mission In Africa,” added Gaal.

How could Flutterwave possibly use Azure?

1. Cloud Hosting: Azure provides a secure and reliable cloud infrastructure where the payment platform’s applications and services can be hosted. It offers virtual machines (VMs) and container services like Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) to deploy and manage the platform’s backend services, databases, and APIs.
2. Scalability and Elasticity: Azure enables automatic scaling of resources based on demand. By leveraging Azure’s auto-scaling features, the platform can dynamically allocate resources to handle high transaction volumes during peak times and scale down during periods of lower activity, ensuring optimal performance and cost efficiency.
3. Data Storage and Management: Azure provides various data storage options suitable for payment platforms. Azure Blob Storage can be used to store large amounts of unstructured data such as transaction records, logs, and documents. Azure Cosmos DB, a globally distributed, multi-model database service, can be utilized to store and access transaction data with low latency and high availability.
4. Security and Compliance: Payment platforms deal with sensitive customer data and must comply with industry regulations such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Azure offers a comprehensive set of security features, including encryption at rest and in transit, identity and access management (IAM), network security groups (NSGs), and Azure Security Centre, to help ensure data protection and compliance.
5. Analytics and Machine Learning: Azure provides various analytics and machine learning services that can help with valuable insights from their data. Azure Machine Learning allows the platform to build and deploy predictive models for fraud detection, risk assessment, and customer behaviour analysis. Azure Data Lake Analytics and Azure Databricks enable the processing and analysis of large datasets for business intelligence and reporting purposes.
6. Integration and APIs: Azure offers integration services like Azure Logic Apps, Azure Service Bus, and Azure API Management that facilitate seamless integration with external systems, payment gateways, and third-party services. These services allow the payment platform to create and manage APIs, automate workflows, and enable real-time communication between different components of the payment ecosystem.
7. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity: Azure’s global presence and built-in disaster recovery feature ensure high availability and data redundancy for payment platforms. Azure Site Recovery enables replication and failover of critical systems and data to a secondary location, ensuring minimal downtime in the event of a disaster.

Azure also offers:

• Azure Payment HSM. This service provides a secure way to store and manage cryptographic keys for payment processing.
• Azure Bot Service. This service can be used to create chatbots that can help customers to make payments.
• Azure Cognitive Services. These services can be used to provide a variety of features for payment processing, such as fraud detection and risk assessment.