I have an exceptionally talented techie friend. She has a mobile money product. She has proven the target addressable market. There is a market in the target addressable market. As proof, her product has gained traction in three northern states. She has successfully onboarded some merchants in the north for two years. But she has not been able to scale it. Shake it down. Sweat it up. Because she does not have the deep pocket of an MTN.
But she got the attention of some VCs. A few of the VCs have not been able to remove the beam in their eyes so that they can see the unicorn in the product. Some are thawing. Others are stalling. The failure of some fintech start-ups is staring them in the eye.
Therefore, she has moved into a safe mode. Not her, but her mobile money product. Do not ask for the details. I will not tell you. The product is in a safe. It is safe where it is. She has locked it away. She is waiting to place it in safe hands. Or in a safe. Meanwhile, she has closed her office. Paid off her employees. Quietly, she is waiting for another time. To strike again. Or sell out. To a safe hand.
On The One Hand
Similarly, Thepeer, a Nigeria-based API start-up that raised a $2.1 million seed round in June 2022, has folded up. The investors would get what they invested. The business could not scale. In a statement, the three-year-old start-up said it closed shop after realising its exceptional technology alone was insufficient. The firm had a compliance challenge. It could not accept wallets as a viable payment option. Therefore, it did not grow as rapidly as ‘we had hoped’. The founders said.
On The Other Hand
According to Crunchbase, Thepeer had raised $2,320,000 from investors. One of the investors is Paystack co-founder, Ezra Olubi. Other investors are RaliCap, Timon Capital, BYLD Ventures, Musha Ventures, Sunu, and Uncovered Fund.
In The Long Term
The peer used its APIs to provide an alternative network where fintechs and businesses can embed different sets of products into their applications and websites for customers to move funds easily. The company had hoped to connect wallets across over 400 fintechs across the continent to enable payments.
Kosisochukwu Ononye and Michael “Trojan” Okoh co-founded Thepeer. The duo had hoped the business would power infrastructure for small to medium-sized fintech businesses. In 2022, its monthly transaction volume reached millions of dollars. It had an average month-on-month transaction growth of 161 per cent. It was going to expand to Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt. Overall, its hopes and growth did not align with the market’s needs.
Therefore, like my friend, Thepeer founders have decided to place the product in maintenance mode for the interim. They will work to maintain the platform for as long as possible until they discover a ‘new home for it.”
In The Short Term
Thepeer was the second startup to return funds to investors in 2024. Cova was the first. Cova was a health tech startup. Cova collapsed. It is challenging to build fintech businesses on the continent. My friend and others wear their scar like a badge.
