Ezra Olubi, a Nigerian entrepreneur, software developer, and co-founder & CTO of Paystack, one of Africa’s most influential fintech companies was suspended from his role as Paystack’s Chief Technology Officer after allegations of sexual misconduct resurfaced online.

The allegations included inappropriate behaviour and old tweets that went viral again.

Paystack announced that:

• Ezra was suspended pending investigation.
• An internal review was opened based on company policies.
• The company would conduct a “fair and transparent” process.

Ezra has not made a detailed public statement, and his social media accounts were deactivated shortly after the allegations went public.

His net worth has been variously estimated, some sources put it around US$100 million. Paystack was acquired by Stripe in 2020 in a deal reported to be worth about $200 million.

Here are five startups that Ezra has backed, based on publicly available information.

Brass

Brass is a digital bank serving small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa, offering business banking tools, credit, payroll, and API support. 

In a $1.7 million financing round, Olubi (alongside other investors) participated. The funding was intended to help Brass expand its credit offerings and geographic footprint (e.g., into Kenya and South Africa).

Notably, there are later reports that Paystack (the company Olubi co-founded) led a consortium to acquire Brass.

Chowdeck

Chowdeck is a Nigerian on-demand food delivery platform. In its $2.5 million seed round, Olubi was listed among the angel investors. The company has grown fast by its own account, it serves 8 Nigerian cities, with over 500,000 users and more than 3,000 riders.

According to Femi Aluko (co-founder), Chowdeck’s model emphasizes strong economics and aims to sustainably pay its riders well.

The Peer 

The Peer was an ambitious API product designed to help businesses move money from one digital wallet to another easily. The idea was simple: if different fintechs could talk to each other, customers could transfer money seamlessly between wallets.

But despite raising $220,000 pre-seed and $2.1 million seed funding (which valued the startup at $5 million), The Peer struggled to reach real scale.

Why The Peer Shut Down

The company officially shut down in April, even though it still had up to 20 months of runway left. According to the founders:

• The startup couldn’t find product-market fit.
• Only 25% of its 82 onboarded businesses were actively using the service.
• After processing over $500,000 in transactions, the company made less than $1,000 in revenue.
• Integrations with businesses took months, slowing adoption.
• Wallet-to-wallet payments were still too early for the African market.

Instead of continuing to burn investor money, The Peer chose an unusual path for African startups returning capital to investors.

About $350,000 is expected to be returned out of the $2.3 million raised. Ezra Olubi, along with other angel investors like Prosper Otemuyiwa, Chipper Cash, Flutterwave, and several VC firms, was part of the investment list.

Even though it shut down, many industry experts say The Peer was a good idea launched too early for Africa’s fragmented fintech system.

Alerzo 

Alerzo is a B2B commerce startup that helps small shops in Nigeria buy inventory, access logistics, and manage payments. It became popular among mom-and-pop stores because it promised cheaper goods and reliable delivery.

Ezra Olubi appears in investment records and deal books as one of the people who invested in Alerzo during its expansion phase. Although the company later faced restructuring and staff cuts, Alerzo remains one of the most notable players in Nigeria’s retail distribution space.

Fleet Device Management 

Fleet Device Management is a San Francisco–based open-source platform that helps companies track, secure, and manage their laptops, servers, and other computing devices.

In its $5 million seed round, Fleet attracted major global investors and Ezra Olubi was listed among the backers, alongside CRV, Mike Arpaia, Jack Naglieri (Panther Labs), and Sid Sijbrandij.

Fleet’s platform is used by IT and security teams at top companies like:

• Uber
• Atlassian
• Dropbox
• Square
• Ernst & Young
• Wayfair
• Heroku

The platform allows organisations to understand and secure their devices in real time, making it a powerful tool for enterprise-level security operations.