Afrigather The African tech ecosystem is slowly maturing. Older startups are investing in new ones, and workers at these older startups are leaving to start out their startups. Final yr, TechCabal lined the former employees of Paystack (Paystack Mafia) who left the funds fintech to start out their companies. This yr, we found that a number of alumni of OPay (OPay Mafia), the Chinese language-backed fintech, have additionally gone on to start out firms which can be presently constructing tech-enabled options for Africa.
A few of these firms have both raised funding or have been accepted into world accelerators like Techstars, validating the issues they’re attempting to resolve. OPay landed in Nigeria in August 2018 after paying an undisclosed fee to acquire a controlling stake in PayCom, a fintech firm based by Telnet Nigeria. In lower than 5 years, OPay has established itself as a dominant participant within the Nigerian fintech house and has produced a number of founders and CEOs.
Identical to we referred to as the ex-employees of Paystack the “Paystack Mafia”, we selected to name the ex-employees of OPay the “OPay Mafia”.
Function in OPay: Senior Advertising Supervisor (2 years)
After OPay: Co-founder and COO of BFREE
Chukwudi Enyi is presently the chief working officer and co-founder of BFREE Africa, Africa’s first digital credit score assortment firm. After working at OPay, Enyi moved to FairMoney, a lending firm. Noticing how lending firms wrestle with non-performing loans, he and his fellow co-founders determined to start out BFREE.
In line with BFREE’s web site, the startup makes use of moral means to rapidly recuperate money owed. The startup operates in Nigeria and Kenya and lists FairMoney, Kuda, GTBank and many others as its prospects. BFREE has raised $2.5 million in complete funding and, in line with its LinkedIn web page, has over 200 workers.
Function in OPay: Senior Gross sales and Enterprise Improvement Supervisor ( 1 yr and seven months)
After OPay: Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of BFREE
Moses Nmor joined OPay in June 2018 as a gross sales and enterprise growth supervisor; he would later go on to be promoted to a senior function. Identical to Enyi, his fellow co-founder at BFREE, Nmor would later be part of FairMoney, albeit as head of direct gross sales.
Nmor instructed TechCabal that he learnt how one can experiment with concepts at OPay. “OPay was very massive on “If it isn’t working, simply drop it; there are a lot of different concepts”. This has allowed me to check concepts fairly rapidly at BFREE and has given me no sentimental attachment in the event that they don’t work, so I can drop them rapidly and transfer on to the subsequent thought.”
He additionally stated that “OPay was very massive on grooming individuals and creating an surroundings for workers to study and develop. This has made me develop a platform at BFREE that may enable operational workers to maneuver from name centre brokers to software program builders, product managers, and product designers.”
Function in OPay: Director of Finance ( 2 years)
After Opay: Co-founder and COO of Lemonade Finance
Rian Cochran has an in depth profession within the monetary house, constructing fintech merchandise within the world south (Cashbean in Asia, OPay and OKash in Africa). He was beforehand the Director of Finance at OPay and is presently the co-founder of Lemonade Finance. Cochran additionally labored for the software program firm Opera for 11 years.
Lemonade Finance is a cross-border remittance firm that enables Africans to ship and obtain cash from everywhere in the world. The startup raised $725,000 in pre-seed funding in 2021.
Function in OPay: Director ( 2 years and a couple of months)
After OPay: Co-founder and CEO of Lemonade Finance
Olalere has 14 years of expertise in expertise starting from being a tutor on the Shenyang College to being the Nigerian Nation supervisor for Uber earlier than founding Lemonade Finance with Cochran. He occupied a number of positions in OPay as director of funds to senior director of operations. He was additionally the fourth senior engineer employed throughout Flutterwave’s very early 2016 days.
In line with Olalere, Lemonade helps African migrants transfer their cash from Africa to different international locations simply. “You’ve got a Piggyvest or Risevest account and need to withdraw the cash to make use of it in Europe. What do you do?” Launched in 2020, Lemonade permits customers to switch cash in minutes.
Function in OPay: Supervisor, Progress and Advertising for ORide ( 1 yr)
After OPay: Co-founder and CEO of Glover
Damilola Layode is the co-founder and CEO of Glover, a present card firm with a bodily presence in Ghana and Nigeria. Layode has intensive expertise within the media business, beginning as a author in 2013 ( he even had a quick stint at TechCabal’s mother or father firm) earlier than a number of profession strikes landed him at OPay.
After OPay, he labored at Patricia earlier than co-founding Glover with Patricia’s CEO, Hanu Fejiro Agbodje. Glover not too long ago graduated from Techstars Toronto’s newest cohort, validating the enterprise mannequin of promoting present playing cards in Africa. Layode told TechCabal that the accelerator helped his firm determine a plan for the present financial local weather.
Function in OPay: Director of Partnerships ( 1 yr and eight months)
After OPay: Co-founder and CEO of Fez Supply
Seun Alley is a seasoned skilled with over a decade of expertise in Nigeria’s banking sector, largely in operational roles at First Financial institution and Opay. She co-founded Fez, a Nigerian logistics firm that provides last-mile supply. People and companies will pay a stipulated month-to-month charge to have entry to Fez’s last-mile supply choice and end-to-end assist; they usually can observe their orders always. Fez can be a graduate of the Techstars Toronto 22 cohort with Glover and Raenest.
Alley instructed TechCabal that “OPay taught me how one can fail quick and fail ahead and that the power to scale a enterprise is every part. If it really works, enhance it and increase it. If it doesn’t, dump it and focus extra on what works.”
Function in OPay: Crew Lead, Digital Advertising ( 1 yr and 1 month)
After OPay: Co-founder and COO of Raenest
Richard Oyome’s profession might be probably the most interconnected with different members of the OPay mafia. He labored with Enyi and Nmor at FairMoney (the co-founders of BFREE) and labored at Lemonade Finance (co-founded by Olalere and Cochran). Identical to Layode and Alley, his firm was additionally a part of the Techstars Toronto 2022 cohort. Oyome’s profession has been constructed on years of promoting tech merchandise.
Raenest is a Nigerian platform that enables freelancers to automate invoices and receives a commission by world shoppers. Companies also can use the platform to onboard African skills, pay them of their most well-liked currencies, and handle staff bills. The startup raised an undisclosed pre-seed round in Could 2022 that noticed participation from Seedstars, Ajim Capital, HoaQ, Ventures Platform, Voltron Capital, and angel traders.
Function in OPay: Director of Partnerships ( 1 yr)
After OPay: Co-founder and CEO of Kredi Financial institution
Afolabi Abimbola is a enterprise growth skilled with over 15 years of working expertise spanning the telecom, cell cost, client lending, and digital banking industries. He additionally spent a part of his early years at Funds and Digital Switch Options (FETS) Restricted, a pioneer of cell funds in Nigeria, earlier than serving as a Director for OPay from 2019 to 2020.
After OPay he co-founded Kredi Financial institution, a digital financial institution that provides borrowing, financial savings, payments funds, funding, insurance coverage and company banking companies. In line with Crunchbase, a knowledge firm, Kredi Financial institution has raised $200,000 in funding.
Function in OPay: Software program Engineer ( 1 yr and 4 months)
After OPay: Co-founder of Accumulate Africa
Wale Martins is a software program engineer with 8 years of expertise. He co-founded Accumulate Africa in 2021. Collect Africa is a cost platform that brings all of the out there cost strategies into one dashboard, enabling enterprise homeowners to obtain funds throughout all gross sales channels, monitor their companies, and handle them. In line with Crunchbase, Accumulate Africa has raised $20,000 in funding.
Function in OPay: Director of Operations (9 months)
After OPay: Co-founder and CEO of Alladin
Darlington Onyeagoro has 15 years of expertise within the monetary companies business, starting from GTBank, Diamond Financial institution, OKash, and OPay. He co-founded Aladdin after leaving OKash in 2020. Aladdin claims to be an “ecosystem digital financial institution”. The financial institution gives small companies with fast entry to loans, high-interest financial savings, and investments. It additionally has a sturdy market of over 40,000 sellers and patrons and a social feed to foster interplay amongst all prospects in a single digital app. Aladdin has raised $4.4 million in complete funding.
