Over the past decade, Moniepoint has grown from a payments startup into one of Nigeria’s most recognisable fintech companies. Its rise has been backed by nearly $300 million in venture funding, millions of customers, and a payments infrastructure serving businesses and individuals across the country.
Behind that growth is a workforce that Moniepoint says numbered more than 3,000 people across 19 countries and five continents as of 2025. But the company’s influence extends beyond the business it has built. Some of the people who helped build Moniepoint have since left to start companies of their own.
In Nigeria’s startup ecosystem, the phenomenon of former employees leaving successful companies to build new ventures has become familiar. Paystack, Interswitch, Flutterwave, and other tech companies have seen alumni strike out independently, taking with them experience, industry relationships, and firsthand knowledge of the problems worth solving.
Moniepoint is beginning to produce its own crop of founders. This list profiles some of these former employees and the businesses they have gone on to build.
Emmanuel Igbodudu — Waza
Emmanuel Igbodudu worked at Moniepoint as a software engineer and technical product manager. He later worked at FairMoney and Revolut. He serves as cofounder and chief technical officer of Waza, a B2B payments and liquidity platform that joined Y Combinator’s Winter 2023 batch and raised $8 million in seed funding. Waza’s flagship product, Lync, now processes over $700 million in annualised payment volume. Waza’s cofounder is Maxwell Obi.
Julian Dumebi Duru — Flow Research
Julian Dumebi Duru spent ten years as a software engineer at Moniepoint. During that time, Duru pioneered the virtual accounts system, business loans, and fraud detection systems. He also worked at VConnect. He is the co-founder of Flow Research, an AI lab built around what he calls a “decentralised intelligence” thesis, and serves on the technical staff of the Africa Deep Tech Community.
Olamide Sobowale — Anchor
Olamide Sobowale worked as a full-stack software engineer at Moniepoint. He earlier worked at Carbon, Kuda, and Google and had previously founded Codepriest Labs, which ran for nine years. He co-founded Anchor, which raised $1 million in pre-seed funding from Y Combinator, Byld Ventures, Luno Expeditions, and Niche Capital, and was a part of Y Combinator’s Summer 2022 batch. He serves as co-founder and CTO.
Agwuncha Chike — Getstac
Before joining Moniepoint, Agwuncha Chike worked at Jumia and Branch, two notable companies in this clime. Chike spent four years as Moniepoint’s program manager. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Getstac, a fintech tool for the day-to-day operations of small businesses. The startup already runs physical hubs across Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Edo, Niger, and Ondo states. He is now co-founder and CEO.
Adeyemi Onafuye & Christopher Obasi — 500 Chow
Adeyemi Onafuye worked as a growth product manager at Moniepoint for six months in 2021, and his co-founder, Christopher Obasi, spent a year at Moniepoint as a software engineer. Both Covenant University alumni co-founded Chow Central, a cloud kitchen startup that was part of Y Combinator’s 2023 batch. Together they run 500Chow, a sister initiative that started with a mission to sell meals at ₦500.
Read: Why a growing remittance business was not enough for Moniepoint
Gbemi Lolade Adekanmbi — Daysim
Gbemi Lolade Adekanmbi led communications and employer branding at Moniepoint for about three years. She previously worked at Jobberman and currently serves as marketing manager at Manny & Co. In 2016, she founded For Creative Girls, a global mentorship network for female artists and designers. From 2012 to 2016, she co-ran Kwirkly, a boutique advertising agency. She now runs Daysim, a platform that lets people simulate a role before starting.
Jamiu Ozigi — Rechaj
Jamiu Ozigi worked as a senior product manager at Moniepoint before leaving to co-found Rechaj. He has also co-founded Irinoyi Energy and Quabbly, a no-code startup backed by Oui Capital and Ventures Platform that closed in 2023. He now serves as co-founder and COO of Rechaj, an EV infrastructure and clean energy company.
Jeffery Imanze — AutoEase
Jeffery Imanze worked in customer success at Moniepoint. He also worked as a contact center advisor at Renmoney and served as head of operations at Summit Finance Limited. He is the co-founder of AutoEase, which builds automation and customer engagement tools for growing businesses.
Kehinde Ojeola — Kehbar
Kehinde Ojeola worked as a senior software developer at Moniepoint, where he helped build a facial recognition-based authentication system to reduce fraudulent login attempts. He is the co-founder of Kehbar, a platform for structuring informal money exchanges between family and friends, which began its early rollout in April 2026.
Michael Olaitan — Powernow Pay Later and NestPay
Michael Olaitan led the POS channel at Moniepoint. Earlier in his career, he worked at Jaiz Bank and First Bank. He is now building two companies at once. He co-founded Powernow Pay Later, which finances clean energy for small businesses and households, and founded NestPay, a fintech startup.
Olawale Afuye — Rekkeh
Olawale Afuye worked as a senior software engineer at Moniepoint. He spent 12 years as a chartered accountant before switching to tech. He taught himself to code and built over 200 GitHub repositories in his first two years as an engineer. He now runs Rekkeh, an automated property access and security platform, as founder and CEO.
Oludele Dare — Steezu
Oludele Dare led the product for warehousing at Moniepoint, staying about five months. His résumé also includes Omnibiz, Victory Farms, Jumia, and Bolt. He did some consulting work before founding Steezu, a fashion e-commerce startup. Steezu’s Android app went live in June 2026, and he is co-founder and COO.
Ore Adetunji — Vegaz
Ore Adetunji worked as a UX designer at Moniepoint and later at Jumia. He also served as lead product designer at Blackcopper, a Techstars 2022 company. He now runs Vegaz, a platform that helps event creators and communities sell tickets and build long-term audiences, as founder.
Oreoluwa Akinwale — Orisun Labs
Oreoluwa Akinwale worked as a software engineer at Moniepoint before roles at Renmoney and Paga. In late 2020, he founded Perseeve, a now defunct platform that lets users view live footage of locations anywhere in the world. In 2026, he founded Orisun, an event-database engine built in Rust, and now serves as principal consultant at Orisun Labs.
Philip Ese — Creatinet Works
Philip Ese worked as a business lead at Moniepoint before a brief stint at Waza, another company founded by a former Moniepoint employee, as head of product and operations. Earlier, at Wema Bank, he built BuxMe, a peer-to-peer transfer app. He also worked at Smile Identity and Aza Finance and advises Curacel, a Y Combinator Winter 2022 company. He now runs Creatinet Works, a venture and product lab, as founder.
Last updated: October 21, 2026
