According to an email to employees obtained by TechCrunch, the CEO of Flutterwave addressed financial and personal misconduct claims against him and the company for the first time.
I want you to know how concerned I am about the impact that reading false allegations against our company has had on you all.
The fact that the allegations of financial impropriety, conflict of interest and sexual harassment have been proved false or have already been reported, investigated and addressed by management matters less to me than the reality that these claims may have shaken your confidence in the company. As founder and CEO, it is my responsibility to address the concerns you may have, and this will be a priority for me moving forward.”
The first comments by the chief executive are the first since a report by West African Weekly revealed several allegations against the startup and Agboola, ranging from fraud and perjury to insider trading and sexual harassment.
The report came days after Clara Wanjiku Odero, an ex-employee and current CEO of Credrails, published a Medium post and a series of tweets accusing the company and its CEO.
It has been a week since the allegations were made. It was thought that Flutterwave wouldn't address them publicly. The delayed response spoke to a weak company culture that might lead to more tea spilled.
TechCabal, a publication focused on African tech, received a statement from the management of Flutterwave three days ago, after an interview with ex-CEO Iyinoluwa Aboyeji.
The CEO was involved with his previous employer, Access Bank, while he was working on Flutterwave. According to the report, Agboola was accused of taking advantage of his position and resources to build a startup and didn't let his previous employers know he was working on it.
The allegations about how I started the company are not true. During the retreat, I told you that a former boss helped us close a client. I received a lot of learning and mentorship while I was working at several employers.
Agboola is accused of creating an investment vehicle that would cash in on share prices below the company's valuation to employees who had stock options.
According to Agboola, neither he nor Flutterwave has engaged in insider trading and mentioned that ex-employees sold shares they owned to outside parties.
He wrote that they followed all legal processes and procedures when approving the sale of shares.
Agboola backed the account provided by ex-CEO Iyinoluwa Aboyeji to TechCabal, stating that the SEC had an inquiry with which Flutterwave fully complied, and he was unaware of it.
In his interview, Aboyeji said that the SEC case was related to concerns about unaccredited investors and that the CEO's accusations of insider trading were not an indictment.
The SEC did not deny or confirm any investigation when the author of the newsletter reached out.
The newsletter revealed emails that said Agboola and Ifeoluwa Orioke had sexual relations with several female employees. Agboola wrote on this issue.
We have previously investigated employee sexual harassment allegations (including those made against me, and of which I was cleared) and terminated employees who have been inappropriate towards team members. We have had independent third party reviews which gave birth to the We Hear You and whistleblowing policies that you all know of today. We have always had a zero-tolerance policy [to] sexual harassment and we will continue to take action when necessary. No exceptions.
The West African Weekly accused Agboola of creating a fake co-founder and CTO identity to allocate more shares to himself, even though he was the major shareholder. Aboyeji verified the allegation in his interview, but Agboola didn't specifically address it in his email to the staff.
The chief executive didn't respond to the accusations that the company did fraudulent activities against its clients.
There was no word on the ongoing court cases it was facing from ex-employees Clara Wanjiku Odero and another lady.
Flutterwave responds as CEO is put on the spot for alleged bullying by ex-employee
Here is the response from the fintech. The ex-employee's former legal counsel dropped her case despite showing initial interest in going up against the unicorn, and that's what tech news site TechCrunch reached out for.
As a general policy, we do not comment on specific employee matters of this nature or pending litigation even when they involve false, recycled, or previously addressed claims. B&I didn't reply to the request for comment.
According to a source, Agboola made an out-of-court offer to this ex-employee. The ex-employee rejected the proposal, which was significantly lower than the current value of her 40,000 shares signed off by e x-CEO Aboyeji during his time as CEO.
Aboyeji didn't comment on the number of shares or the current value, but he did say that it's what he told them.
It was important to me that all of the staff were rewarded for their sacrifice in helping build the company.
It's not clear why she didn't implement the agreement, even to the CEO.
I was made aware that some of the people on the list weren't issuing stock options after I left, but I don't know why.
In the email to his employees, CEO Agboola outlined actions the company would carry out to improve its culture, which looks bad in the eyes of the public.
Improving its HR policies while working closely with audit and advisory firms is one of the measures.
The CEO wrote that the organization has made some changes to how they communicate. We want to hear directly from you and what we can do to continually improve.
On the other hand, it's understandable that Flutterwave wants to restore the image it had just months ago as the darling of Africa's tech community. The company is making changes if the claims are false.
Agboola will not be stepping down as CEO just yet, contrary to what tech stakeholders might have thought. There was no mention of that in the email.
Agboola said he would visit every office on the continent by the end of the year to have one-on-one chats with employees.
The email's end reiterates this.
I know this is a lot to take in! We will have more conversations to discuss all this in greater detail. I want to hear from you all and answer any questions you have.
I’ll end by saying that when we started the company in 2016, our mission was to simplify payments for endless possibilities for businesses, consumers, and especially our customers. That remains our mission, of which all of you are a crucial part in making a reality.
I will always put Flutterwave first. And Flutterwave is all of you. Like I always say our people are the secret sauce of Flutterwave and I mean that.
…Thank you for reminding me that to whom much is give, much is required. I will live up to your expectations of me.
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