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The “Why” Behind Jiji

Jiji was founded in 2014 by Anton Volianskyi and Vladimir Mnogoletniy, two Ukrainian entrepreneurs who saw an untapped opportunity in Nigeria’s digital economy. At the time, online shopping across the continent was still at an early stage. While some platforms were trying to build structured e-commerce systems around warehouse and delivery, many ordinary people simply wanted a straightforward way to buy and sell directly.

Meanwhile, everyday Nigerians were already buying and selling at scale, just not online. In cities like Lagos, second-hand goods, electronics, cars, and even properties were constantly changing hands, but the process was sort of scattered.

For instance, if you needed to offload a used phone, you could tell a friend or flag down a dealer. There was no single platform designed for that need at scale, hence the poor visibility. Even renting an apartment often depended on chance conversations, as people relied heavily on word of mouth. In other words, commerce was happening, but it was scattered, unstructured, and, most importantly, hard to trust.

This was the landscape Anton Volianskyi and Vladimir Mnogoletniy walked into. They saw that Nigerians needed a trusted digital marketplace—a classifieds platform built for local realities, where anyone could list products and services for free, reach thousands of people instantly, and handle transactions on their own terms.

Classifieds are short, categorized advertisements—traditionally in newspapers and now online—used to buy, sell, or promote goods, services, and opportunities.

According to Anton Volianskyi:

“We identified a need for a platform where people could connect directly to buy and sell everything, from products to services. At the time, the market faced pressing issues around accessibility, affordability, and trust, with scams creating distrust in online transactions. To address this, we built Jiji to minimise the risks by facilitating direct transactions with no intermediaries.”

Crucially, that thinking shaped everything Jiji did in the early years. The platform had to be easy enough for anyone with a smartphone to use. And buyers had to also know they were dealing with real people, not faceless accounts. And so, it was this attention to context, not just technology, that made Jiji resonate.

Building and Launching the Product

When Jiji launched in Lagos in 2014, it wasn’t with an aim to become a full-stack e-commerce shop. Instead, the team leaned into a simpler idea: build a classifieds marketplace that worked like the markets people already used—only faster and more visible.

Initially, Jiji focused on lowering friction for sellers. For instance, it offered free listings for first-time users, a move that rapidly seeded inventory and gave newcomers a no-risk way to try the platform. At the same time, the team pursued distribution partnerships—striking deals to preinstall the Jiji app on affordable phones and even working with telecom operators for better access for mobile users, which helped drive early user adoption.

Equally important was trust. By focusing on density (lots of listings and buyers in concentrated cities) and reliability (fewer scams, clearer buyer–seller signals), Jiji built network effects that later made geographic expansion easier and more defensible. The goal of making Jiji a trusted space for peer-to-peer trading shaped many early product decisions.

The company then accelerated growth through selective acquisitions, notably taking over several OLX Africa operations, which increased market share in key countries and consolidated listings under the Jiji brand.

The goal of making Jiji a trusted space for peer-to-peer trading shaped many early product decisions.

In short, Jiji’s launch worked because it stayed practical. People in Nigeria were already buying and selling offline, so the team focused on making those same trades easier and safer online. Free listings brought sellers in, telco and device partnerships opened the door to first-time internet users, and fraud checks gave buyers confidence.

Achieving Product-Market Fit

For Jiji, product-market fit came from solving a very real frustration: people wanted to trade goods online, but they didn’t trust the platforms available at the time. By keeping listings free and focusing heavily on fraud prevention, Jiji quickly became a safer alternative to newspaper classifieds and informal Facebook groups.

The response was almost immediate. Sellers found that Jiji helped them reach far more buyers than they could offline, while buyers gained the confidence to browse without worrying as much about scams. This balance created the kind of two-sided trust every marketplace needs. By 2018, Jiji had already become one of the most visited classifieds sites in Nigeria, attracting 8 million monthly users.

Beyond the statistics, individual success stories made Jiji’s impact visible. Small business owners who once struggled to reach customers began to thrive on the platform. For instance, many car dealers in Lagos started using Jiji as their primary sales channel, with some moving most of their inventory online instead of relying on physical lots.

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Go-To-Market Strategy

When Jiji penetrated the Nigerian market, the biggest question wasn’t whether people wanted to trade; they already did that every day in open markets, roadside shops, and word-of-mouth deals. The real question was: how do you convince them to trust an online platform enough to do the same thing digitally?

The team’s first answer was accessibility. One of the smartest moves early on was to make listings free. This lowered the barrier for small traders, mechanics, real estate agents, and even individuals trying to sell used electronics. Within months, Jiji’s site was filled with diverse listings, which in turn attracted buyers. The classic marketplace flywheel (more sellers bringing more buyers) began to spin.

Partnerships also played a big role in this adoption. Deals with smartphone makers and telecom operators gave Jiji direct access to first-time internet users, many of whom had never bought or sold online before. In 2016, Jiji landed a partnership deal with Airtel, allowing users to access the platform without using mobile data.

Through partnerships with smartphone manufacturers and telecom providers, Jiji pre-installed its app on budget Android devices. That meant someone buying their first phone in Ibadan or Kano often discovered Jiji before they even opened Facebook.

Marketing was also designed for the local context. Instead of chasing early adopters in elite circles, Jiji leaned into mass-market advertising. They ran outdoor campaigns, television ads, and radio spots in multiple local languages. They leveraged aggressive marketing to the point where, for many first-time internet users, “buy it online” became synonymous with “check Jiji.” This approach helped Jiji cut across demographics, positioning itself as a marketplace “for everyone,” not just the tech-savvy few.

And finally, there was trust. At the same time, they invested heavily in education and reassurance. For Jiji, this was about reassuring users that online trading was safe. Safety guidelines, clear in-app reminders, and a heavy focus on scam prevention became part of the company’s outward messaging. And so, in a market skeptical about online trading, this messaging helped Jiji differentiate itself as the safer, more reliable option.

User Base and Revenue

In 2019, Jiji acquired OLX Africa and took over its operations in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, and Tanzania. The bet on free listings and mass visibility paid off, with the platform crossing over 300,000 ads within its first few years, with millions of monthly visits driven by people searching for everything from cars to electronics.

Overnight, it consolidated two of the largest classified marketplaces on the continent, bringing in OLX’s existing users and listings. This acquisition not only expanded Jiji’s footprint but also gave it the scale to compete against global players like Facebook Marketplace.

Today, Jiji reports over 12 million monthly users and 4 million active listings across its markets. In Nigeria alone, the company is among the top three most visited e-commerce platforms, competing for traffic with Jumia and Konga. Its core categories, such as vehicles, real estate, and electronics, continue to drive the bulk of activity.

On revenue, Jiji follows a freemium model. Most listings are free, but sellers who want better visibility can pay for premium packages such as Top Ads or VIP Ads. This tiered system lets Jiji monetize its most active users—car dealerships, property agents, and high-volume merchants, while still keeping the platform accessible to everyday sellers. In 2021, the company reported that its paid advertising model was profitable, a rare milestone for consumer internet startups in Africa.

Fundraising Efforts

Jiji’s ability to scale from a scrappy startup into a pan-African marketplace has been shaped by carefully timed fundraising rounds and acquisitions that gave it the firepower to expand.

The company’s earliest backing came from Genesis Group, a Ukrainian investment firm that provided seed funding to get the idea off the ground in 2014. This early support helped Jiji set up its Lagos base, build its tech stack, and begin the long work of customer education around online classifieds.

Jiji’s next major milestone came in 2019, when it announced the acquisition of OLX’s businesses in five African markets—Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. While the terms weren’t disclosed, reports suggest this deal was backed by fresh funding and strategic support from Genesis, giving Jiji a sudden leap in scale.

In 2021, Jiji raised a significant round from Digital Spring Ventures, a Moscow-based venture firm, marking a pivotal moment for its expansion strategy. This capital was used to acquire Cars45, an automobile trading platform, strengthening Jiji’s dominance in the vehicles category, one of its most lucrative verticals.

Most recently, in 2024, the company announced another round of funding, though the amount remained undisclosed. What was clear, however, was the intent: doubling down on safety features, AI-powered fraud detection, and user trust systems, areas critical to sustaining growth in Africa’s high-risk digital economy.

What’s Next for Jiji in 2025?

After more than a decade in the classifieds business, Jiji has grown into one of Africa’s most recognizable digital marketplaces. But the real question is how it plans to stay ahead in 2025 and beyond, a period where consumer expectations, competition, and regulation are shifting rapidly.

One clear focus is deepening trust and safety. Online fraud remains one of the biggest concerns in Africa’s e-commerce space, and Jiji has already invested heavily in AI-powered moderation and fraud detection tools. In 2025, the company is expected to push even further here, doubling down on identity verification and safer payment systems to ensure users can transact with confidence.

Another priority is expanding its automotive and real estate categories, which are among its highest-revenue drivers. With the successful integration of Cars45, Jiji now has an opportunity to own the entire customer journey for car sales, from listing to inspection to purchase. Real estate, meanwhile, remains a fragmented but lucrative vertical, and Jiji’s scale gives it a strong position to dominate.

Jiji’s core categories; vehicles, real estate, and electronics, are its highest-revenue drivers.

Geographically, Jiji is also looking beyond its current footprint. While it operates in five African markets today, Pan-African expansion remains a logical next step. Markets like South Africa, Egypt, or francophone West Africa present untapped opportunities, though each comes with unique challenges around language, regulation, and logistics.

Finally, there is the question of monetization. Jiji has historically kept its platform free for buyers and sellers, relying on premium listings and ad placements for revenue. In 2025, the company may experiment with new revenue streams, including transaction fees on high-value categories and partnerships with financial services that facilitate seamless buying, selling, and paying on the platform.

Jiji’s next chapter will likely be defined by two things: building deeper trust with users and finding smarter ways to monetize its massive base of buyers and sellers. If it succeeds, it won’t just remain a classifieds leader but also solidify its position as Africa’s premier digital marketplace.

☝🏽 A personal note:

I’ve mostly used Jiji for benchmarking—comparing the prices of commodities in the local markets when I either want to sell my own items (electronics and furniture) or buy other items.

I believe it’s a platform that really shines when you want to cut out the middleman. Their major challenge is a normal human challenge where commerce is involved: fraud. Still, with a bit of caution, it remains one of the most convenient ways to trade locally.

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The "Why" Behind uLesson

uLesson started in 2019, but the problem it was built to solve had been growing long before that. The founder, Sim Shagaya, had spent years building companies in Nigeria’s tech space. He launched Konga, one of the country’s earliest e-commerce platforms, and before that, helped build E-Motion Outdoor, an advertising company.

But underneath all of that, Sim had always held a soft spot for education. And not just because it was important, but because he had lived the consequences of what it meant when it wasn’t available.

He’d grown up in Plateau State, gone to school in Nigeria and later abroad, and he could see the gap clearly: the average child on the continent was being left behind. Overcrowded classrooms. Poor infrastructure. Underpaid teachers doing the best they could. And a growing population of young people trying to learn in systems that just weren’t working. Parents were paying out of pocket for private lessons, yet many students still struggled to pass common entrance or WAEC.

It wasn’t that these students weren’t smart. It was that the system wasn’t built to help them thrive. So Sim started thinking—what if tech could level the field?

Eventually, when Shagaya launched uLesson in 2019, he deliberately started with an unconventional solution: distributing video lessons using SD cards and USB drives, knowing that internet access was still a barrier for many students. This hands-on, context-aware approach sets uLesson apart.

As access to the internet improved and smartphone adoption grew across the continent, uLesson evolved into a robust learning app, layering in interactive features, practice tests, and live online classes. Sim shared this vision himself:

“When my colleagues and I set out to build uLesson in early 2019, we observed that for the vast majority of Africa’s K‑12 learners, quality education is out of reach. And we believed that technology would necessarily play a role in remedying this problem.”

Believing that technology could unlock access to education at scale, Sim understood that a conventional Western edtech template wouldn’t suffice. The solution had to adapt to African realities: local curricula, low-bandwidth connectivity, and affordability.

So, uLesson began in a way few could have predicted—delivering animated, curriculum-aligned video lessons via SD cards and USBs, enabling students without internet access to engage with rich, structured learning. This creative, offline-first approach set the foundation for what eventually led to the platform becoming an African-first learning platform.

Building and Launching the Product

When uLesson officially launched in 2019, it wasn’t trying to build the most high-tech product on the market. The team, led by Sim Shagaya, was focused on a different question entirely: How do you deliver quality education to a student who doesn't have Wi-Fi, steady electricity, or money for a private tutor? This question shaped everything about the product.

The first version of uLesson wasn’t an app at all—it was a collection of curriculum-based video lessons stored on SD cards and USBs. These were bundled with affordable Android smartphones and sent out to families across Nigeria. This offline-first approach might have looked outdated to outsiders, but in context, it was one of the smartest moves the team could’ve made.

Many edtech startups had already come and gone, building for an infrastructure that simply didn’t exist for the average Nigerian household. uLesson flipped that on its head—instead of trying to change user behavior to fit the product, they built a product that fit the reality of the users.

The content itself was another major investment. Rather than simply filming teachers writing on a whiteboard, the uLesson team set up a full production studio in Jos, hiring subject-matter experts, scriptwriters, and animators to create engaging, story-driven video lessons that could hold a child’s attention and make abstract concepts come alive.

The idea was to turn learning into something kids would actually want to do, not just something they had to do. Alongside the videos, the platform also included quizzes, assessments, and performance tracking, giving students a sense of progress and helping parents see what their children were learning.

The real magic, though, was in how everything came together: high-quality content, local curriculum alignment, offline accessibility, and a clear, mobile-first user experience—all backed by a small but determined operations team handling content creation, device distribution, and customer onboarding.

By the time uLesson released its Android app in early 2020—just before the COVID-19 lockdowns—the company was ready. What started as a low-tech workaround had become a gateway for millions of students to keep learning, even when schools shut down.

And unlike many digital tools that saw a spike during the pandemic only to drop off later, uLesson kept growing, because it wasn’t built as a crisis solution. It was built to last.

Achieving Product-Market Fit

uLesson’s journey to product-market fit was rooted in a deep understanding of the systemic challenges facing education in Africa.

After launching in early 2020, uLesson initially rolled out as a mobile app offering pre-recorded video lessons on a memory card bundled with a dongle. This was a deliberate move: it allowed the platform to overcome Nigeria’s biggest infrastructural bottleneck—data cost and poor internet access—while giving students access to high-quality lessons.

But the real validation came during the COVID-19 pandemic, when physical schools shut down and parents across Africa scrambled for remote learning solutions. uLesson quickly gained traction as more students turned to digital platforms for learning. The app saw tens of thousands of downloads across Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa within months.

Simultaneously, the uLesson team took in real-time user feedback and adapted the product beyond recorded video. They introduced quizzes, homework help, and live classes to enhance interactivity and engagement. These improvements weren't just technical—they reflected a deep understanding of what students and parents actually needed from an edtech platform: accessibility, structure, engagement, and results.

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Go-To-Market Strategy

From day one, uLesson knew that building a great product wasn’t enough—they had to find the right way to get it into the hands of families across Africa. And the truth was, many of those families weren’t hanging out in app stores or waiting to discover new edtech tools online. So, the team made a bold move: they took the product offline to get it online.

The initial strategy was very boots-on-the-ground. Instead of relying solely on digital channels, uLesson built a distribution model that resembled what you might see in the FMCG world—physical sales agents, in-person demos, and direct-to-parent conversations.

They sold affordable Android phones preloaded with uLesson content, bundled with SD cards and dongles, and deployed them across homes, schools, and small retail outlets. In doing this, they didn’t just pitch a product—they introduced a new way of learning to parents who were often skeptical about digital tools.

Much of the early traction came from word of mouth. Parents who bought the product saw how their children engaged with it—and more importantly, how their children began to improve in school.

That word spread fast, especially in urban centres like Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Lagos. But the team didn’t stop there. They doubled down on field marketing: roadshows, school partnerships, teacher-led introductions, and regional campaigns that built awareness from the ground up.

In 2024, uLesson teamed up with MTN Nigeria in a major push to expand reach. MTN donated 4,600 tablets pre‑loaded with the uLesson app to secondary schools across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones. Beyond the tablets, the collaboration included special data offers that allowed students to access educational content without worrying about airtime, effectively zero‑rating the platform for users under uLesson subscriptions.

As the product matured and internet penetration improved, uLesson began to shift online—running app campaigns, building a strong presence on YouTube and social media, and using performance marketing to target more digitally active parents.

They also tapped into the aspirational mindset of many African families by highlighting exam success, academic excellence, and structured learning—all outcomes parents deeply cared about. But even with this digital shift, uLesson never fully abandoned its community-driven roots.

Their go-to-market strategy blended traditional and digital distribution in a way that few African startups had attempted at the time, and that balance made all the difference. By meeting parents where they were, and not where the tech world expected them to be, uLesson earned both trust and loyalty.

User Base and Revenue

As uLesson found its footing in the market, its user base didn’t just grow—it evolved. In the early days, most users came through offline channels: parents who bought the preloaded Android devices, schools that signed up in groups, or teachers who recommended the platform during revision periods.

These were uLesson’s first believers—parents and learners who were ready to experiment with digital learning at a time when it was still unfamiliar to most households across Africa.

But things started to shift quickly. Once users got a taste of what was possible, lessons broken down in engaging videos, exam prep tools, quizzes, and a curriculum that mirrored what students were taught in school, the referrals kicked in.

Word-of-mouth was incredibly powerful. For many parents, especially in Nigeria’s middle class, it wasn’t just about education anymore. It was about giving their kids a competitive edge.

The team continued to refine the product and open up new features—live classes, in-app testing, and learning analytics for parents, all of which helped improve retention. Meanwhile, pricing was intentionally kept flexible: affordable monthly plans, bundles, and discounts during WAEC and UTME prep seasons.

They even experimented with freemium access in certain markets to draw users in before upselling premium features. This allowed them to expand access while still maintaining strong conversion rates.

By 2021, uLesson had hit over 1 million downloads, a number that told only part of the story. Behind those downloads were thousands of paying subscribers and families who renewed month after month. Revenue began to grow steadily, powered by a mix of subscription income, device sales in the early years, and later, value-added services layered into the learning experience.

One major turning point came during the COVID-19 pandemic. While many schools shut down, uLesson became a lifeline. Parents scrambled for options, and uLesson’s app already battle-tested, was ready. They saw an explosion in demand, and more importantly, an increase in paid users. It wasn’t just a spike in traffic. It was a signal: edtech had finally arrived as a necessity, not a luxury.

As the platform expanded into new regions like Ghana and Kenya and added more subject areas and grade levels, the business model continued to evolve. But what stayed constant was the understanding that revenue would follow value.

If the platform helped children perform better in school, parents would pay. And if it could do that at scale, across multiple countries and education systems, the business would keep growing—steadily, sustainably, and with purpose.

Fundraising Efforts

When uLesson launched in 2019, it didn’t start with a viral product or massive user traction. What it had was a bold thesis: that quality education, delivered through a mobile device, could change the academic outcomes of millions of African students. And that thesis had the credibility of its founder, Sim Shagaya—a tech veteran who had previously built Konga, one of Nigeria’s largest e-commerce platforms. Investors paid attention.

Early on, Sim made a strategic decision not to bootstrap. Edtech, especially one that aimed to serve multiple markets with localised content and custom devices, required heavy upfront investment. So in late 2019, uLesson raised a $3.1 million seed round led by TLcom Capital.

That initial capital went into product development, content production, and distribution. It was a bet on infrastructure: pre-recorded lessons, warehouse logistics for their learning devices, and a team of subject matter experts.

But the real turning point came with traction. Once parents began buying into the value, and once COVID-19 made digital learning feel not just optional but necessary interest from investors intensified. By 2021, uLesson announced a $7.5 million Series A, also led by TLcom, with participation from Founder Collective and other angels.

The timing couldn’t have been better. With usage surging and demand growing across new African markets, the company now had fuel to double down: hiring more engineers, expanding content to junior secondary and primary levels, and experimenting with live classes.

Not long after, in late 2021, they raised a $15 million Series B, led by Nielsen Ventures and existing backers. At that point, uLesson wasn’t just a Nigerian edtech startup—it was an African education company with growing pan-African ambitions.

The Series B was about depth and scale. More localised content. Better data infrastructure. Stronger parental dashboards. And the big one: more personalised learning, powered by AI and user behaviour data.

What’s Next for uLesson in 2025?

As uLesson enters its sixth year, the company’s focus appears to be shifting from just content delivery to creating a full-fledged learning ecosystem. With over 3 million app downloads and a strong presence across West Africa, uLesson is now eyeing deeper engagement, personalized learning, and regional scale.

In an increasingly competitive edtech market, 2025 may see uLesson deepen its AI-powered learning experiences—building on its 2023 release of adaptive practice tests and real-time performance tracking.

The goal, according to founder Sim Shagaya in past interviews, is not just to digitize content but to “make learning as intelligent and responsive as possible.” This means better curriculum mapping, predictive analytics to help struggling students, and possibly integrating more languages to localize the experience across Africa.

Finally, uLesson is expected to keep investing in offline access solutions, particularly for underserved regions where internet penetration remains low. From dongles and SD cards to downloadable lesson packs, accessibility continues to be core to its mission.

Sim Shagaya’s vision also led to Miva Open University, an accredited online university the team launched in 2024.

Through Miva, uLesson is moving beyond secondary education into full-scale higher learning, offering degree programs in business, computer science, and software engineering.

Beyond undergraduate degrees, Miva also offers postgraduate pathways—including an MBA and a Master of Public Administration (MPA)—that extend uLesson’s reach into professional and public-sector leadership. The MBA program officially launched on April 2, 2024, marking Miva’s first step into graduate education.

In 2025, the university introduced MIND (Miva Interactive Neural Dialogue), an AI-powered learning partner for one-on-one, case-study-driven discussions and adaptive feedback, deepening the “intelligent and responsive” vision across its programs.

Since launch, Miva has scaled from an inaugural cohort of 532 students to over 5,000 by the end of 2024—matriculating 3,000+ learners across 14 approved undergraduate programmes—and now counts 200+ faculty who have delivered nearly 2,000 learning modules.

☝🏽 A personal note:

I believe Sim Shagaya and the uLesson team have succeeded at marketing so much that when I was choosing an MBA program, I chose Miva Open University.

The MBA program has so far lived up to its promises, helping to ground me in core disciplines like accounting, finance, marketing, and operations management.

I’ve even built several AI workflows & agents to boost my productivity during the program, and create ready-to-use templates—just as I do with MIA. Here’s a workflow I built to automate some financial and accounting models.

If I have kids sometime in the future, I’ll definitely be getting them on the uLesson app. I’ve experienced Miva University firsthand and explored uLesson’s learning experience—it’s amazing.

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The "Why" Behind SeamlessHR

When people think of innovation, their minds often drift to shiny objects, apps with seamless swipes, products that promise overnight transformation, or buzzwords that trend for a season. But real innovation? It’s rarely glamorous. It’s born in the friction experienced by real companies trying to solve real problems. This is the story of how SeamlessHR began.

For many African businesses, that friction was everywhere, but especially in HR. Managers wrestled with spreadsheets that broke under pressure, processes that lived in dusty file cabinets, and payroll systems that ran on memory, not accuracy. Companies were full of energy and ambition, but internally, things were falling apart. People were doing their best, but the systems were failing them.

As such, (simple?) issues like payroll were either outsourced at great cost or run on a wing and a prayer. Local companies that could afford it had to invest in imported software designed for foreign markets and retrofit their systems to accommodate things like Nigeria’s PAYE or Kenya’s NHIF deductions. Many of the others that couldn’t, died.

Infact, according to a report by Weetracker, between 2010 and 2018, 61% of startups in Nigeria founded in or after 2010 shut down, with factors like poor or non-existent structures for managing Human Resources listed among the underlying causes.

Therefore, it was obvious that African businesses didn’t need more talent—they had that in spades. What they needed was infrastructure and localized software that understood their language, laws, and complexity. Two young Nigerians, Dr. Emmanuel Okeleji and ‘Deji Lana, built SeamlessHR to fill that gap.

It started in a living room—with two Nigerians, two laptops, and a difficult problem no one else wanted to touch.

Dr. Emmanuel Okeleji had always been surrounded by entrepreneurs. His father often brought boardroom talk home, and as a boy, Emmanuel listened in. He was trained as a medical doctor, but by the end of medical school, Emmanuel had gone through a Goldman Sachs investment banking internship and kicked off an incorporated software development company alongside his current co-founder, ‘Deji Lana.

Deji was a brilliant software engineer with a knack for building reliable systems, and they met while studying at Obafemi Awolowo varsity. Together, they held a shared mission to help African businesses optimise their resources to be more productive and successful by streamlining HR processes with a modern all-in-one HR software that leaves nothing out of the cycle; think employee recruitment, onboarding, retention, and exit.

“We went into this because we want employers to be able to optimise and make better decisions when it comes to their workforce.” shared ‘Deji Lana, co-founder and CTO, SeamlessHR. He added in a separate interview, “Our model is software. Instead of businesses to build different tools or use different technology to improve their workforce or their resources either human, financial resources or other assets, we do that for them. All that is needed to do is to log into our software or engage with us so that they can focus on the core of their businesses as either banking, oil and gas, healthcare, manufacturing etc.”

That insight changed everything.

They began mapping out the pain points across the employee lifecycle from slow, outdated recruitment models to non-localized compliance frameworks, and in 2018 (after years of learning, failing, building, and unlearning), they launched SeamlessHR.

Building and Launching the Product

From a modest living room in Lagos, Nigeria, the seeds of what would later become SeamlessHR were first sown. Emmanuel and ‘Deji weren’t just building a startup; they were navigating a mission, albeit without knowing exactly where it would lead.

In 2012, they launched Insidify, a bold attempt to rethink how job seekers and employers connected across Africa. Coined from the words “inside” and “identify”, the name reflected their vision: a platform that gave people an inside track to opportunities, and helped employers identify talent, a sort of “Google for jobs” across the continent.

On the surface, Insidify resembled other job aggregators like Jobberman, but the ambition ran deeper. The goal wasn’t simply to match CVs to vacancies. Emmanuel and ‘Deji envisioned a professional network that would do more; one that would dig into the roots of employability, access, and recruitment across emerging markets.

For five years, they built and ran Insidify with tenacity, gaining firsthand insight into the complexities of Africa’s labour market. But what became painfully clear over time was that you can’t monetize unemployment. The people who needed the platform the most—the job seekers—couldn’t afford to pay for access. And the employers, facing their own inefficiencies and structural issues, weren't seeing the long-term value just yet.

Dr. Emmanuel, CEO and Co-Founder of SeamlessHR, said, “We ran it from 2012 to 2017 (but) it did not go very well because unemployment in Africa is tricky. It is not easy to monetise when people don’t have money. Job seekers don’t have money, so you can’t take money where there is no money. In 2017/2018, we began to change..”

What they discovered was simple but significant: the real problem wasn’t just hiring people; it was managing them once hired. Most companies, even large institutions, lacked the systems to do this effectively. HR processes were fractured, payroll was error-prone, leave tracking was manual, and performance evaluations were ad hoc at best. The landscape was not just underserved—it was almost entirely ignored.

They decided that their next product would not be another consumer-facing tool. It would be an enterprise-grade solution that tackled the “boring” back-office work that keeps companies running. But to succeed, they knew the platform had to be more than just another software.

The ATS was where SeamlessHR began, and it was built to digitize the recruitment journey from job posting to offer letter. Sterling Bank was their first major client to adopt the tool, a significant win that allowed the team to test their assumptions in a high-pressure, real-world environment. The feedback from that experience didn’t just shape the ATS—it set the tone for how every product module would be built: in partnership with real users, embedded in real workflows, and tested against real business constraints.

In 2019, they moved on to employee record management. HR departments across Africa often kept employee files in cabinets—physical folders stacked in dusty corners, inaccessible during audits or policy changes.

SeamlessHR created a centralized, cloud-based system for storing employee data, configurable by role, department, and location. But the real turning point came in 2020, when SeamlessHR introduced its payroll engine. Payroll is the beating heart of every company—it must be precise, timely, compliant, and adaptable. Getting it wrong can trigger employee unrest, legal sanctions, or financial chaos.

Building a payroll system that works in Nigeria, where tax laws, pension deductions, union dues, and employee benefits vary not just by sector but by state, required painstaking research and tight collaboration with compliance experts.

SeamlessHR’s payroll tool was built to handle all of it: multiple pay schedules, currency formats, tax brackets, NHF, NHIS, ITF, and direct bank integration for salary disbursement. It didn’t just automate calculations; it transformed payroll from a stressful, error-prone monthly ritual into a trusted process companies could rely on.

Over time, the platform expanded its capabilities. Performance management was next, allowing companies to set goals, conduct appraisals, track KPIs, and document feedback. By 2023, the company wasn’t just building HR tools—it was shaping business strategy.

What set SeamlessHR apart during all this was its obsessive attention to local compliance. The software wasn’t just translated or localized—it was built ground-up for each market. Throughout the development journey, the team resisted the pressure to launch prematurely or compete on features alone. Instead, they focused on reliability, uptime, auditability, and data security.

By the time SeamlessHR became the go-to HR platform for PwC, AXA Mansard, Wema Bank, Lagos Business School, and hundreds of African companies, it had earned that status not through ads or virality, but by doing the hard, patient work of building deep infrastructure.

Achieving Product-Market Fit

Dr. Emmanuel Okeleji and ‘Deji Lana, immersed themselves in the real-world practices of HR departments across Nigeria. They sat with operations managers at oil companies, watched how leave was processed in banks, followed payroll runs at small retail shops, and talked to HR heads juggling regulatory filings in chaotic offices.

This discovery shaped their strategy and its first MVP: The Applicant Tracking System (ATS)—a lean, focused tool that embedded itself inside real recruitment processes. But they didn’t stop there. The feedback they received—about access, storage, audit trails, and compliance—led them to rethink how organizations handled all employee data.

The result? A centralized, cloud-based HR management system that did more than digitize paper records. It created structure. No more dusty cabinets, no more disappearing files during audits, no more regulatory blind spots. And because it was configurable by role, it could reflect the complexity of real organizations.

This foundational focus on actual workflow and local compliance became SeamlessHR’s product philosophy. As Dr. Emmanuel puts it, “What helped us is that first of all, we wanted to be an institution. Our goal wasn’t just to make money and live like ballers. That was not our goal. Our goal was to build a proper institution.”

That mentality—the long game—led to a product that didn’t just automate HR but became essential infrastructure grew SeamlessHR into a full software-as-a-service with two core plans:

• Core HR allowed businesses to manage employee information, automate payroll, process leave, track attendance, generate reports, and allow for varying access levels via a self-service model.

• Premium HR added advanced capabilities like disciplinary and grievance management, exit and severance tools, and detailed analytics, all in addition to mobile access and deeper compliance modules.

Moreover, the software wasn’t just adapted to Africa—it was built for Africa. Tax systems, pension structures, severance laws, and employee benefits vary across Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and other countries where SeamlessHR now operates. The team didn’t simply localize one product across markets; its integration strategy ensured they could plug in with tools like QuickBooks without friction. And should a glitch arise, the support team was one message away.

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Go-To-Market Strategy

SeamlessHR’s market entry was deliberate, grounded, and deeply attuned to how businesses in Africa operate. Emmanuel and Deji understood that HR wasn’t a glamorous function, but it was critical. More importantly, they realized that many organizations—particularly mid-sized to large enterprises—would rather leave managing HR to an expert body so they could focus on their own core business. This insight became the foundation of their go-to-market strategy.

And so, rather than targeting every company they could find, SeamlessHR sought out businesses whose primary function wasn’t people operations, but who still required robust, compliant, and adaptable HR infrastructure to scale.

These were companies that had real business to do—banks, oil and gas firms, logistics providers—and needed HR to be reliable, automated, and invisible and soon after, they landed their first client–Sterling Bank, a forward-looking Nigerian banking institution with innovation at its core.

Sterling Bank did not want to build HR systems from scratch or keep tweaking legacy processes. They wanted a partner who already understood the terrain, and SeamlessHR had spent years building to own that space—It was a match made in heaven!

Yet, that was not all. SeamlessHR’s software made it easy for such businesses to manage employees across the entire lifecycle, with seamless integration to ERPs and mobile access. The Core HR and Premium HR subscription tiers made onboarding into the platform easier for businesses at different stages.

Startups and smaller companies could begin with the essentials—payroll, leave management, and data access control—while larger enterprises leveraged more sophisticated features like disciplinary tracking, severance workflows, and advanced HR analytics. Both tiers were available with mobile functionality and integration into popular accounting software, making the platform feel like a natural extension of the business’s existing workflow.

“Our model is software. Instead of businesses to build different tools or use different technology to improve their workforce or their resources either human, financial resources or other assets, we do that for them. All that is needed to do is to log into our software or engage with us so that they can focus on the core of their businesses as either banking, oil and gas, healthcare, manufacturing etc.” – ’Deji Lana, CTO/Co-Founder, SeamlessHR.

That guiding belief shaped how SeamlessHR approached the market with its product. Their GTM playbook didn’t rely on hype. It was built on product strength, institutional ambition, and the clarity of a single goal: to become the trusted infrastructure for how African businesses manage people.

User Base and Revenue

While SeamlessHR has quietly powered the operations of several notable brands across sectors, its total user base remains undisclosed. However, what is publicly known is that SeamlessHR’s client portfolio includes industry leaders like Sterling Bank, eTranzact, Sanlam, MTN, FCMB, Lake Turkana, PiggyVest, along with dozens of other medium to large organizations spread across multiple African markets.

The company has taken a pragmatic, revenue-first approach. SeamlessHR operates a subscription-based model, charging customers per staff per month, which means revenue scales proportionally with company size. This approach aligns perfectly with their client base—HR teams managing 50 to 5,000 employees, allowing the software to grow with the organization’s needs.

According to the official website, SeamlessHR offers four main pricing tiers: Lite, Core, Advantage, and Custom. Mobile support is available for all plans, making it easy for employees and HR personnel to manage processes on the go and with $500 million processed in payroll for its client base in 2023 alone, the numbers allude to its genius.

Fundraising Efforts

In 2019, SeamlessHR secured its first pre-seed investment, with Tofino Capital contributing $150,000. This early capital helped grow the team and sharpen product focus. By 2020, the startup closed a seed round led by Lateral Capital and Consonance Investment Managers, with participation from Ingressive Capital and Enza Capital—paving the way for expansion across Anglophone Africa.

The big leap came in January 2022, when SeamlessHR raised $10 million in Series A funding. Led by TLcom Capital and backed by Capria Ventures, this round enabled the company to deepen product development, expand into Kenya and Southern Africa, and invest in new offerings like Earned Wage Access, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

In January 2025, SeamlessHR raised an additional $9 million in a Series A extension, led by the Gates Foundation and Helios Digital Ventures, bringing the total funding to over $20 million. This latest round is fueling further growth across the continent, with expansion, embedded finance, and even acquisitions on the table.

What’s Next for SeamlessHR in 2025?

With operations firmly rooted in West and East Africa, SeamlessHR is setting its sights on Southern Africa and North Africa, with South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Egypt on the expansion roadmap. Each new market represents not just an addressable audience, but a chance to build infrastructure where none existed—and to localize HR systems that respect the nuances of regulation, culture, and scale.

One of the most ambitious elements of their 2025 plan is the deeper integration of embedded finance. Having already launched features like Earned Wage Access and a financial wellness suite, SeamlessHR is looking to offer credit and other financial tools that sit within the same platform where HR and payroll live. The vision? A workplace operating system that doesn’t just manage people but empowers them.

☝🏽 A personal note:

I haven’t actively used SeamlessHR myself. However, I have worked at a company with a similar focus, especially regarding hiring, onboarding, payroll, and other HR processes important to business growth. Also, I have been an employee in several other companies, a handful of which struggled with their HR department, so I know firsthand how frustrating it can be when those systems don’t work as they should.

From late salary alerts to clunky onboarding or unclear leave requests, I’ve experienced it all. And honestly, those experiences have changed how I approach work today. I care more about the process and pay more attention to the employee experience because I know what happens when people are left in the dark, made to feel invisible, or not promptly/properly compensated for the work they do.

So when I came across SeamlessHR’s story, it resonated. It wasn’t built for headlines or hype. It was built to fix what breaks inside organisations. And it does so with quiet consistency, helping businesses manage people properly and letting employees focus on their job. That’s why this story matters. It’s a reminder that infrastructure isn’t just about roads and tech. It’s also about the systems behind how people work, get paid, grow, and thrive.

If you care about structure, want to pay your people right and on time, and need a system that grows with you, SeamlessHR is your best bet. It's not just HR software; it’s infrastructure for African businesses.

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The "Why" Behind Chowdeck

Chowdeck was founded in October 2021 by Femi Aluko (CEO), Olumide Ojo (CTO), and Lanre Yusuf (COO) with a simple goal: to fix the food delivery system in Nigeria – something most people agreed was broken.

Before Chowdeck, the founders had already established their reputations in the tech industry. Femi and Ojo previously served as principal engineers at Paystack, while Yusuf was an engineering lead at Crown Interactive. But even with their backgrounds, they ran into the same frustrating experience many Nigerians face – ordering food was hit-or-miss, especially when it mattered most.

The idea for Chowdeck was inspired by Femi Aluko's personal experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. After testing positive for the virus on December 31, 2020, he found it challenging to get food delivered in Lagos, as many food delivery providers were not operational during public holidays.

At the time, most delivery platforms lacked structure. People’s orders took forever to get delivered. Sometimes, your food comes hot and on time. Sometimes, it never came at all. It became clear that there was a gap – people wanted to order food, vendors wanted to sell, and riders wanted to earn as well, but the systems connecting them were weak.

“I tested positive for COVID on the 31st of December, 2020. The result came in very late at night, and I couldn’t travel home. I spent the entire January 1 looking for food vendors to deliver food to me, but the available food delivery providers didn’t deliver during public holidays. I eventually found one after so many hours and ended up paying 4x the regular amount.” — Femi Aluko

What if they built a delivery platform that could actually handle scale? One where the tech, logistics, and experience were designed to work smoothly in Nigerian cities? This was the starting point for Chowdeck. More specifically, Femi’s firsthand experience highlighted the inefficiencies in Nigeria's food delivery system, especially during critical times.

Motivated by this, he and his co-founders embarked on a mission to create a more reliable and efficient food delivery service, leading to the birth of Chowdeck.

Building and Launching the Product

The team – Femi Aluko, along with Olumide Ojo and Lanre Yusuf began by validating the market through an MVP built quietly in 2021. They initially launched in two areas: Ikeja and Yaba, Lagos. Rather than trying to scale instantly, they focused on tightly controlling logistics, ensuring delivery times were low and customer experience was high. According to their Y Combinator launch post, Chowdeck achieved an average delivery time of under 30 minutes in its first few months.

From the start, Chowdeck worked closely with partner restaurants, many of whom had given up on food delivery altogether due to unreliable riders and poor customer service. The company not only brought orders to them, but it also restored trust in delivery as a viable revenue stream. Within months, a large percentage of Chowdeck’s early restaurant partners reported significant sales growth thanks to the platform.

To drive adoption, the team took a hands-on approach, handling everything from logistics to customer support. Particularly, the team adopted a highly operational approach, managing dispatch, tech, and customer support under one roof.

Additionally, the initial focus on a few key locations allowed them to fine-tune operations before expanding to more cities. By early 2022, the product was gaining traction, both with customers looking for reliable meals and restaurants eager for a dependable delivery partner.

Achieving Product-Market Fit

Chowdeck's journey to product-market fit was marked by strategic focus and iterative learning. Launched in October 2021, the platform began with just two restaurant partners and a handful of delivery bikes, concentrating its initial operations in Lagos to ensure quality and reliability before scaling.

The team put their energy into making sure their riders could pick up and deliver orders quickly and safely. This careful start helped build trust with both customers and vendors. Restaurants appreciated this, especially busy food vendors who saw Chowdeck as a dependable partner to reach more customers without worrying about delivery logistics.

Chowdeck’s model resonated well with both customers and restaurants. By 2024, the platform had grown significantly, recording over ₦30 billion in food deliveries and serving more than 1 million users across eight Nigerian states.

Beyond just the numbers, individual success stories helped highlight Chowdeck’s impact. Korede Alimi, owner of a fast-food chain (Korede Spag), reported that Chowdeck riders were exceptionally prompt, often picking up about 200 orders daily from a single restaurant.

Chowdeck also recently revealed that his business has generated more than ₦1 billion in sales through its platform. This milestone speaks to the power of Chowdeck’s delivery network in helping local food vendors grow their businesses.

Another food vendor in Lagos, Amoke Oge, also hit a remarkable ₦2.3 billion in sales on the platform, showing how Chowdeck is supporting a wide range of food businesses across the city.

Chowdeck’s ability to meet the needs of both hungry customers and busy vendors helped it gain strong traction in Nigeria’s competitive food delivery market. Their focus on reliable service and real partnerships with restaurants allowed them to grow steadily and become a trusted name for food delivery in Lagos and beyond.

Go-To-Market Strategy

When Chowdeck launched in October 2021, its entry into Nigeria’s food delivery market didn’t come with a splashy marketing campaign. Instead, the founders—Femi Aluko, Olumide Ojo, and Lanre Yusuf—focused on building a dependable service that solved a problem they understood intimately: late or unreliable food delivery in Nigerian cities.

In the early days, they fulfilled orders themselves, a decision that wasn’t just symbolic but foundational to understanding how orders got delayed, where bottlenecks occurred, and what customers really valued, eventually helping them develop effective solutions.

One of their earliest operational fixes was to introduce a system of order validation at restaurants, especially those with high demand. For instance, for some of their busiest vendors, a dedicated team helps verify order readiness before confirmation, reducing cancellations and building user trust.

To support this level of service, the company invested heavily in its rider network, offering riders performance incentives, housing support, and even promotion opportunities. According to the team, these incentives weren’t just generous, they were essential to ensuring reliability, a key differentiator in a market where missed deliveries are all too common.

As the company expanded, strategic partnerships became a critical growth lever. In August 2024, Chowdeck signed an exclusive deal with Chicken Republic, one of Nigeria’s most popular fast-food chains. This deal helped Chowdeck gain strong footing in Lagos and Ibadan, where demand for quick and affordable meals is high.

A few months earlier, in December 2023, Chowdeck had already ventured into grocery delivery through a partnership with Shoprite. That collaboration allowed the brand to extend beyond just meals to essential groceries, offering same-day delivery in Lagos, Ibadan, Abuja, and Port Harcourt.

In terms of technology and customer access, Chowdeck made deliberate choices to ensure inclusivity. The app was designed to work seamlessly in low-bandwidth environments and was integrated with mobile money platforms to allow easy, cashless payments.

For users with limited digital access, Chowdeck even offered order placements via phone – a rare but thoughtful touch in an increasingly app-first world. They also introduced budget-friendly options, like N1,000 meal deals, to appeal to price-conscious consumers without compromising quality. Campaigns like these, including the Chicken Republic deal, became major drivers of new user acquisition and repeat purchases.

Chowdeck’s marketing strategy was equally intentional. Rather than burning cash on ads, they built virality into the user experience, especially during moments that mattered. Customers frequently shared screenshots of fast delivery times and personalized service on social media, building organic visibility. The team later layered on paid advertising efforts as the business scaled, with data from Startup Graveyard Africa revealing that they began increasing ad spend proportionally with growth, focusing on cities with rising order volumes and adjusting creatives based on customer behavior.

Together, these choices, grounded in operational execution, thoughtful expansion, user empathy, and measured promotion, helped Chowdeck establish not just a brand but a service people could actually rely on. In a market long plagued by delivery delays and disappearing riders, that reliability became its most powerful form of marketing.

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User Base and Revenue

Since its inception in October 2021, Chowdeck has rapidly emerged as a formidable force in Nigeria's food delivery landscape. By 2024, the platform had surpassed ₦30 billion in total deliveries, marking a significant milestone in its growth trajectory. This achievement was accompanied by a rapidly-growing user base, which expanded from just 319 users in its first month to over one million registered users by the end of 2024.

Chowdeck's operational footprint extends across eight major Nigerian cities, including Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan, and Port Harcourt. The company collaborates with over 3,000 businesses and maintains a fleet of more than 10,000 riders, ensuring efficient and timely deliveries. These riders are compensated competitively, with earnings comparable to senior civil servants, reflecting Chowdeck's commitment to fair labor practices.

The platform's revenue model is multifaceted. Beyond the standard delivery fees, Chowdeck generates income through restaurant commissions, service charges, and occasional surge fees. This diversified approach allows the company to offer competitive prices to customers while ensuring profitability.

In addition to its core food delivery services, Chowdeck has ventured into the advertising space. The company offers various advertising options, including banner ads on its app, push notifications, and branded delivery bags. These advertising avenues have become increasingly popular among brands seeking to reach Chowdeck's extensive user base, further bolstering the company's revenue streams.

Chowdeck's impressive growth and innovative strategies have positioned it as a key player in Nigeria's evolving food delivery and logistics sector. With plans for further expansion and diversification, the company is poised to continue its upward trajectory in the coming years.

Fundraising Efforts

In April 2024, Chowdeck secured $2.5 million in seed funding to enhance its operations and support expansion into more Nigerian cities. The funding round attracted a diverse group of investors, including Y Combinator, Goodwater Capital, FounderX Ventures, Hoaq Fund, Levare Ventures, True Culture Funds, and Haleakala Ventures. Notable angel investors such as Simon Borrero and Juan Pablo Ortega (co-founders of Rappi), Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi (co-founders of Paystack), Sudeep Ramnani (Sportybet), Ayo Arikawe (Thrive Agric), and Karthik Ramakrishnan (Amazon) also participated in the round.

The capital infusion was strategically aimed at consolidating Chowdeck's market leadership in its existing eight cities, Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Ilorin, Benin City, Abeokuta, and Asaba, and laying the groundwork for further expansion across Nigeria. The company planned to utilize the funds to optimize its delivery operations, enhance user experience, and strengthen partnerships with vendors and riders.

CEO and co-founder Femi Aluko emphasized the company's commitment to delivering excellent experiences for customers, vendors, and riders. He stated,

"We know that Nigerians love good food, and we just want to make it as easy as possible for them to access the food they desire. Chowdeck was birthed to fulfill this purpose, and we are committed to delivering truly excellent experiences for our customers, vendors, and riders".

The successful seed funding round marked a significant milestone for Chowdeck, providing the necessary resources to scale its operations and reinforce its position in Nigeria's competitive food delivery market.

What’s Next for Chowdeck in 2025?

Chowdeck is growing fast, and 2025 is shaping up to be a big year. In January, the team launched in Kaduna and Owerri. By March, they took a bold step by opening in Accra, Ghana – Chowdeck’s first move outside Nigeria.

To keep up with the growth, the company has made some changes to how it runs. One major step was cutting back on manual tasks and improving the flow of deliveries. These changes helped reduce delivery times from around 41 minutes to just 33. It also meant letting go of some contract staff so the company could move faster and work smarter.

In Ghana, Chowdeck is training riders to improve delivery quality and also launched reward programs to keep customers happy. The goal is to create a strong and reliable experience for everyone using the platform.

Chowdeck is also looking to go beyond meals. They’re planning to add more services like grocery and pharmacy deliveries, so people can order other everyday needs straight to their doorstep. The long-term dream is to become a one-stop app for anything you need quickly, starting with food, but not stopping there.

With the right moves, growing demand, and solid improvements behind the scenes, Chowdeck is set to keep expanding in 2025, faster, smarter, and more useful than ever.

We recommend Chowdeck if you’re looking for a reliable food delivery service to satisfy your cravings without chasing dispatch riders.

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The "Why" Behind Moniepoint

Before Moniepoint became a household name, it was TeamApt—a company founded in 2015 by Tosin Eniolorunda and Felix Ike to fix broken digital systems within Nigeria’s banking ecosystem. Tosin, a former Interswitch engineer, had grown frustrated with the inefficiencies he witnessed across financial institutions. He knew software could do more, not just for banks but for the people banks served.

The team started by developing backend software to automate and digitize banking services. But the deeper they dug, the more visible an opportunity became: banks weren’t just inefficient—they were inaccessible to millions. A new “why” emerged, and it would go beyond simply empowering banks to empowering the people they failed to reach—SMEs, merchants, and underserved Nigerians.

The team set out to even the odds by giving businesses and individuals across Nigeria access to the tools they needed to grow — banking, payments, credit, and business management — all in one place. At the time, a large portion of the population was underserved, shut out of traditional financial systems that favoured low-risk clients and urban centres. Moniepoint saw a different future: one where everyone, no matter their location or income level, could access reliable, empowering financial services.

“Driven by the goal of spreading financial happiness, I couldn’t ignore how much financial inclusion in Nigeria needed to improve. Most of the ‘big guys’ supported the people with little risk, but this meant so many others were left underserved. Agency banking was the obvious bridge, bringing digital financial services closer to the people who needed them most. But problems like reconciliation errors, system instability, and lack of transaction transparency made adoption difficult. Agents were often left to deal with dissatisfied customers, and the model was struggling to scale and so we built a product that would solve these problems, effectively changing the trajectory of agency banking.” – Tosin Eniolorunda, Moniepoint’s CEO.

Up until this time, Moniepoint was viewed merely as a TeamApt product. Its widespread presence rendered TeamApt nearly invisible.

“Despite these milestones, we had a bit of a problem. We had struggled with our brand for a bit. Having built a name while creating solutions for banks, and then gone ahead to build successful products like Moniepoint and Monnify, which served businesses, people often couldn’t reconcile us with these products. The name “TeamApt” was disconnected from these products, and describing ourselves was a big challenge”, says Tosin.

So, when TeamApt’s Global Marketing Lead shared her proposal to adopt the flagship product name, Moniepoint, with the executive team, there was minimal hesitation in accepting it. The timing was ideal. By January 2023, TeamApt Inc. had changed its name and officially became Moniepoint Inc.

“Moniepoint was the product that people knew and loved. It made sense for the company to become known by the name of this product with which we were heavily associated,” - Tosin Eniolorunda.

Moniepoint swiftly became a sought-after solution. Its mission, though simple, is powerful: to create a society where everyone experiences financial happiness. Today, Moniepoint is an all-in-one banking, credit, and cross-border payment solution for African businesses and their customers. Two out of three adults in Nigeria have experienced reliable payments with Moniepoint, and it is Africa's fastest-growing fintech.

Building and Launching the Product

While working closely with financial institutions, the TeamApt team uncovered a persistent pain point: PoS reconciliation. Merchants were struggling with transaction clarity, often unable to identify which customer made which payment. In response, TeamApt built a PoS acquiring solution in 2016 to address this inefficiency. It wasn’t just a fix—it was a game-changer. By 2018, 26 out of Nigeria’s 30 banks were using the product. The breakthrough moment came when Fidelity Bank chose TeamApt’s software over that of the industry giant, Interswitch. Wema Bank followed. Then others. By initially offering the software for free, TeamApt created real-world use cases that proved its value—paving the way for long-term institutional contracts.

In 2019, the company launched Moniepoint as a separate product—a mobile money agent network designed to give everyday Nigerians more control over their finances. That same year, they secured $5.5 million in Series A funding from Quantum Capital. By 2020, Moniepoint extended its offering to include PoS terminals, empowering agents to deliver banking services in underserved and remote communities. Moniepoint quickly became Nigeria’s most robust financial services distribution network, processing over 120 million transactions per month, amounting to more than $7 billion monthly. In regions where traditional banking had failed, Moniepoint became the go-to infrastructure for financial inclusion.

Still, the team remained grounded. Instead of aggressively chasing funding, Tosin and his team bootstrapped, starting with ₦15 million from Tosin’s personal savings and a handful of side projects. Their philosophy was simple: build something of undeniable value, and the investors will come. In 2022, Moniepoint evolved again—this time expanding to support all types of small businesses. With a banking license in hand, the company began offering full-service banking solutions to help businesses thrive, from payments and loans to compliance and beyond.

By 2023, Moniepoint had earned the trust of over 1.5 million businesses, many of which have since become deep, long-term users of its products. The brand has established itself as a foundational growth engine for entrepreneurs and SMEs across Nigeria, achieving unicorn status in October 2024.

Achieving Product-Market Fit

“Right off the bat, we decided that we wouldn’t just build, but we would do so differently. Armed with industry experience and market research, we built a product that would solve these problems, effectively changing the trajectory of agency banking”, - Tosin Eniolorunda, CEO of Moniepoint.

For Moniepoint, product-market fit wasn’t about buzzwords. It was visible in street kiosks, markets, and rural towns. A key part of their strategy was targeting the informal sector, which employs the majority of Africa's workforce, has historically been underserved by conventional financial institutions. Moniepoint’s strategy has helped to change this narrative. By 2021, over 30,000 agents were facilitating 23 million transactions monthly, valued at ₦400 billion.

The numbers exploded. In 2022, they processed an annualised total payment volume exceeding $170 billion. By 2023, that number ballooned to $150 billion in transactions processed within the year. And crucially, Moniepoint wasn’t just processing payments—they were solving business problems.

Tosin once said: “We realised that while we solved the payment problem, businesses still struggled with operations, taxes, insurance, and staff welfare.” The product evolved. Moniepoint became more than a payment terminal—it became a full business bank.

With a microfinance license from the NDIC, they began offering credit, insurance, and operational tools. Loans disbursed reached $1.4 billion with a default rate of less than 0.1%. Among other things, the brand added another leg to the transaction process flow that allowed agents to get real-time reports of their transactions. It also built a hyperlocal distribution network, powered by a system that ensured agents could see and track how much they earned. This combination made even the earliest version of Moniepoint something that people were excitedly waiting for.

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Go-To-Market Strategy

TeamApt’s early go-to-market approach was unconventional—but brilliant. Instead of pouring funds into aggressive marketing, they leaned on product-led growth. As a B2B solution, they kept spending minimally and focused on showing banks the problem, then offering the solution, free. This not only built trust but created traction faster than any ad campaign could.

But the pivot to B2C with Moniepoint demanded a different playbook—one that could scale.

They found it through their agent network. Word-of-mouth among merchants, powered by reliable tech and exceptional customer support, fueled widespread adoption in places marketing rarely reached.

In 2021, the journey to define Moniepoint’s unique brand voice began with Didi, VP of Comms, who laid the foundation for a cohesive product and creative strategy. Working alongside Chinedu (Product) and Yemi (Creative), the team crafted a brand promise rooted in daily relevance.

Moniepoint wasn’t trying to be aspirational—it was built for real life. Whether it was buying sachet water, garri, sugar, or movie tickets, the brand wanted to show up. That ubiquity demanded a brand language that was simple, human, and resonant.

“It wasn’t about us—it was about them. Whatever fancy work had gone into our product didn’t matter. They just needed to know how we solved their problems” – Victory Okoyomoh, Senior Comms. Specialist, Moniepoint.

Tosin aligns with this philosophy, mentioning how an offline marketing strategy is of high importance in a very low-trust business environment like Nigeria, “We’ve seen people say they want to know who’s behind the brand and want some comfort that it’s not some anonymous folks they are dealing with online. There is also an emotional connection, rooted in trust, which is still important in banking and is one of the key distinctive elements for attracting and retaining customers. So, the offline strategy does have a lot of merit in a society like ours to provide the well-needed assurances that their monies are safe and secure, and they are dealing with a reputable institution.”

Under this philosophy, brand marketing focused on three core objectives:

1. From reliability to relatability: If people could relate to Moniepoint, they’d trust it. If they trusted it, they’d rely on it.

2. Alignment of product and brand: Every touchpoint had to say: “That’s Moniepoint. It works, it makes sense, and it speaks my language.”

3. Memorable, not just marketable: The team struck a balance between polished visuals and content that genuinely entertained. The goal? Be remembered because you were understood—and enjoyed.

User Base and Revenue

Today, Moniepoint serves over 1.6 million merchants, enabling transactions worth trillions of naira. In 2023 alone, it processed over $150 billion in total transactions. In the same year, it was ranked the second-fastest growing company in Africa by the Financial Times.

Behind those figures lies disciplined execution. The company was profitable within its first two years. Revenue—measured in USD—was always ploughed back into growth. That mindset helped them grow revenue by over 4,500% across three years.

They’ve now extended their offering to include payroll management, staff welfare, and even insurance, all tailored for the 41 million small businesses across Nigeria.

Fundraising Efforts

Moniepoint’s fundraising journey is a study in timing. They bootstrapped for four years, building value before raising their first round. That came in 2019, with a $5.5 million Series A. By 2021, they’d attracted interest from Novastar Ventures and Lightrock, closing a Series B of over $30 million. QED Investors led the pre-Series C round with an additional $50 million.

But the tipping point came on October 29, 2024. Moniepoint announced a $110 million Series C led by Development Partners International and Google’s Africa Investment Fund, officially becoming Africa’s newest unicorn. This capital injection positions Moniepoint to scale aggressively across Africa. According to Tosin, the funds will accelerate the development of their integrated platform, making it easier for businesses to thrive on the continent.

What’s Next for Moniepoint in 2025?

The unicorn title isn’t the finish line—it’s a milestone. Moniepoint is now focused on three things:

• Pan-African Expansion: With a proven model in Nigeria, they're eyeing similar pain points across Ghana, Kenya, and francophone Africa.

• All-in-One Platform: They want to consolidate banking, payments, loans, insurance, and HR tools into one dashboard for African SMEs.

• Deeper AI & Data Insights: Tosin hinted that using data to create predictive financial tools is part of their 2025 roadmap. The goal? Help SMEs make smarter business decisions.

☝🏽 A personal note:

As someone who’s led marketing at different levels for various organizations, bootstrapped or funded, and often as the first marketing hire at these places, I’ve come to deeply respect brands that choose to build slowly, intentionally, and with clarity of purpose.

That’s why Moniepoint’s journey resonates. From Tosin Eniolorunda’s early days designing infrastructure at Interswitch to building what now powers over two-thirds of Nigeria’s retail payments, this wasn’t just execution—it was vision meeting discipline.

Moniepoint didn’t chase virality or vanity metrics. It earned trust. It scaled impact. And it did so with the user at the centre, not the spotlight.

In an industry where everyone’s sprinting, they walked—and still made it to unicorn status.

As Tosin once said: “It’s better to prove that you have value first, then come back to place demand on that value.”

If you’ve ever had to build from scratch, you know how rare that kind of patience is. Africa, take note.

We recommend Moniepoint for any entrepreneur or business owner seeking reliable, relatable, and deeply accessible banking solutions designed for real-world challenges.

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The "Why" Behind Fertitude

Fertitude was founded by Dr. Kieva Chris-Amusan with a mission to break the silence and stigma surrounding women’s reproductive and sexual health. The idea was born out of a shared frustration: too many women faced barriers to accessing reliable reproductive healthcare, and the existing solutions lacked the inclusivity and real-time support they needed.

“Despite training as a medical doctor, it took me years of trial and research to figure out how to best manage my PCOS symptoms. As a young girl, I dealt with irregular periods, and when they did come, they were heavy and lasted for days. Finding answers and a lasting solution was a long, frustrating journey—even with my medical background. I decided to go on this crazy wild ride to build Fertitude because, like so many women, we’ve been through eventful twists and turns with our own reproductive health journeys. We have seen firsthand how challenging it can be and we knew there had to be a better way to support women through all of this.” — Dr. Kieva Chris-Amusan

Watch Dr. Kieva answer the question “why did we start Fertitude?”:

Building and Launching the Product

After conceiving the idea in June 2023, Dr. Kieva and team began by validating the concept through in-depth research and user interviews. They wanted to ensure that Fertitude would provide exactly what women needed: accessible, stigma-free reproductive health support.

Full-scale product development began in October of that year, and by March of the following year, beta testing was launched with the first 1,000 users. Feedback from this phase shaped subsequent iterations, leading to the August 2024 release of a refined version of Fertitude with an emphasis on four key areas: personalized health recommendations, direct access to healthcare professionals, self-paced care programs, and anonymous community forums.

Today, Fertitude is home to close to 3,000 women across different life stages—managing cycles, fertility treatments, postpartum care, and more.

Achieving Product-Market Fit

By the end of 2024, Fertitude had attracted a diverse user base of women—from those managing irregular cycles to women navigating fertility treatments and postpartum care. This traction was largely due to:

• The combination of medical expertise, tech-enabled solutions, and community connection was a game-changer

• Anonymity features especially resonated with users navigating deeply personal health challenges.

"At Fertitude, we have made it easier and more affordable for women to consult a doctor. For as little as ₦1,000 (~$1), a woman can get direct answers from a qualified health professional or even consult a gynecologist—without enduring long hospital wait times," says Dr. Kieva.

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Go-To-Market Strategy

The team adopted a multi-channel strategy to introduce Fertitude to its audience, building on their early insights that women needed accessible and affordable reproductive health solutions.

But their approach didn’t stop there.

Founder-Led Marketing

Dr. Kieva is a recognized voice in female health and medical tech, and has leveraged her platforms to spark conversations on reproductive health and position Fertitude as a go-to solution.

In addition to social advocacy, Dr. Kieva’s background in growth marketing, as she explains to us here, is helping her drive initiatives centered on product lifecycle marketing, partnerships, storytelling, and community engagement.

According to Dr. Kieva, “Growth happens when we understand our audience’s needs and goals so well that we are delivering real value at every touchpoint, speaking their language, and meeting them where they are”.

Social Media Content

Beyond strategic marketing efforts, social media advocacy has played a pivotal role in Fertitude’s go-to-market success.

Dr. Kieva and the Fertitude team have been actively sparking conversations around reproductive health across platforms like:

• TikTok (educational and relatable health content),

• Instagram (community stories, campaign highlights like "Me & My Girls"),

• Twitter/X (health tips, advocacy, real-time engagement).

By meeting women where they already spend their time online—and by fostering real, honest conversations—Fertitude has built an organic community that grows stronger with every story shared.

This founder-led authenticity combined with platform-specific strategies created a virtuous cycle of awareness, trust, and user acquisition.

Influencer-Led Storytelling

This International Women’s Month (March, 2025), Fertitude launched the "Me & My Girls" video series—a bold, deeply personal campaign to amplify African women’s voices on reproductive health.

The YouTube series features six notable women, including:

• Bambam (BBNaija alum),

• Tosin Ajibade (OloriSuperGal),

• TitoOluwa Sam-Oladapo,

• Toyinlolu Ogunmade,

• Kike, and

• Kieva.

They open up about fertility treatments, vaginismus, childbirth struggles, and surrogacy, offering real, unfiltered reproductive health conversations often hidden behind closed doors.

In one standout moment, OlufunmiJay, host and producer, shares:

“I never thought I’d talk about this publicly, but if our collective stories can help even one woman feel less alone, then it’s worth it.”

Through this series, Fertitude is changing the narrative—from silence and stigma to solidarity and support.

Expert Partnerships

Collaborations with healthcare professionals, wellness influencers, and advocacy groups have helped amplify Fertitude’s mission and expand its reach.

Community Engagement

Through anonymous forums and peer-matching features, Fertitude has fostered a sense of belonging, organically growing its user base through shared experiences and support.

We also interviewed Dr. Kieva Chris-Amusan in our T-shaped Marketers Series where she shares more about her background, marketing journey, and how she’s using those skills to transform women’s health access through Fertitude.

👉🏽 Read the full interview here: https://www.marketinginaction.xyz/p/kieva-chris-amusan-t-shaped-marketer

User Base and Revenue

Since its launch, Fertitude has helped thousands of women access critical reproductive health support. Users have shared how the platform has empowered them to make informed decisions, feel less alone in their journeys, and take control of their well-being.

The platform mainly earns revenue from in-app payments for consultations and various services. Although the company has not revealed specific revenue figures, the steady adoption of its product indicates a robust, sustainable business supported by a dedicated and engaged user base.

Fundraising Efforts

As of the present date, there is no information readily accessible online regarding Fertitude’s fundraising activities.

What’s Next for Fertitude in 2025?

Fertitude is continuously evolving to meet the needs of its users. The team is focused on moving from reactive care to proactive care, expanding features such as:

Period tracker designed to give women deeper insights into their menstrual cycles and overall reproductive health.

Improved health insights through Kiki (Fertitude’s AI-powered health assistant) for even more personalized care. Fertitude revealed that one of the standout features of the period tracker is that it will work in sync with Kiki AI to provide real-time feedback and support.

Wholesome education to curb/address misinformation in female health.

Multilingual support to reach more women worldwide.

Deeper integration with healthcare providers and experts to bridge the gap between digital support and in-person medical care, especially in underserved areas.

☝🏽 A personal note: I signed my wife up on Fertitude.

Over the years, I’ve become quite aware of the multiple complications that women face for the simple fact that they have reproductive systems.

I’ve also seen how frustrating it is to get specialized care for women, especially in Nigeria where there is a dearth of obstetricians & gynaecologists—and even basic healthcare.

On a personal level, Fertitude’s mission hit home for me—so much so that I even signed my wife up for it because I believe that she, like every woman, deserves immediate support, expert advice, and a community that truly understands.

Fertitude is more than just an app—it’s a movement to ensure that no woman feels isolated in her reproductive journey. We recommend Fertitude for any woman seeking personalized, stigma-free, and affordable reproductive health support.

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The "Why" Behind PiggyVest

PiggyVest was founded in 2016 by Odunayo Eweniyi (COO), Somto Ifezue (CEO), and Joshua Chibueze (CMO) with one mission: to help Nigerians build a healthy saving culture in a country where access to reliable savings tools were limited. The idea was sparked by a simple question—Why was it so hard for young people to save consistently and meet their financial goals?

Before PiggyVest, the team ran PushCV, a platform helping Nigerians find jobs. But they noticed a deeper problem—even when people got jobs, many struggled to manage money. Inspired by a viral tweet about automating savings through a wooden box (kolo), they realized technology could offer a smarter, more disciplined way to save.

On the 31st of December, 2015, a Twitter user shared a picture of her saving box and how she was able to save N365,000 by putting aside N1,000 every day.

“We saw people saving in wooden boxes or relying on informal means. We thought – what if we built a digital version of that, with structure, security, and returns? That was the starting point.” – Odunayo Eweniyi

One of the co-founders, Joshua, was so inspired by the tweet that he immediately bought a kolo, echoing the nostalgia and shared financial struggles many Nigerians face. Around the same time, another Twitter user began selling savings boxes for ₦2,000, demonstrating a clear public interest in saving mechanisms that were tangible, relatable, and culturally relevant.

This laid the foundation for an idea: what if the "kolo" could be digitized? The team quickly recognized that while the physical savings box was symbolic and familiar, it came with major drawbacks—lack of security, low discipline, and easy access that made it difficult for users to stick to long-term savings goals. Thus, Piggybank.ng was born—an MVP designed to automate the "kolo" experience while addressing its key limitations.

Building and Launching the Product

The team didn’t jump into app development right away. Instead, they focused on proving one thing: that Nigerians, especially millennials, were ready to save digitally if the tool was simple, trustworthy, and transparent.

The first version of Piggybank.ng was developed in a matter of days and immediately began evolving through continuous iterations. The team explored different monetization models—charging a flat monthly fee of ₦490, then switching to transaction-based fees on deposits—both of which were quickly discarded. Eventually, they settled on making the platform entirely free for users, introducing a smart constraint: limited withdrawal frequency.

This not only encouraged users to develop better saving habits but also allowed the company to make more informed financial decisions down the line. At the time, the team wasn’t sure how to monetize the product, but they believed deeply in its potential impact. Build it well, they thought, and the users will come.

A significant enabler in those early stages was Paystack, which had just launched and provided the much-needed payment infrastructure. Their support was instrumental to the product’s viability and growth.

Getting the first user, however, proved to be its own challenge. Why would anyone trust a new product over their traditional banks, which already offered convenience, familiarity, and some level of assurance? To test the waters, Joshua reached out to the same Twitter user who had initially sold him the wooden kolo. He pitched the digital version of that experience—Piggybank.ng.

That user, Abel Adejoh, became Piggybank.ng’s “user zero.” His enthusiasm and feedback became a turning point for the team, reinforcing their conviction that they were on to something meaningful. Though they asked him to keep his usage confidential until the official launch, his participation validated the product in a deeply personal and community-rooted way.

By April 2017, Piggybank.ng was rebranded to PiggyVest and launched a full suite of savings and investment features, including flexible savings plans, fixed targets, and interest payouts. What began as a humble MVP has grown into a full-blown fintech platform tailored to the real financial lives of young Nigerians.

Achieving Product-Market Fit

When Piggybank.ng launched, it was laser-focused on a very specific market: Nigerians who wanted to save ₦1,000 daily—mirroring the habits of wooden-box savers. The goal was to provide a digital alternative that still honored the discipline of incremental savings. The product began with just daily savings as its core functionality, and over time, weekly and monthly options were added in response to user needs.

The team’s initial target was small-scale savers working toward critical financial obligations such as rent, tuition, or seed capital for small businesses. It wasn’t about complex financial tools—it was about enabling consistent, manageable savings for people who needed a better, safer, and more disciplined option than the physical kolo.

From their very first tweet, the response was overwhelming. Within two days, Piggybank.ng had over 300 sign-ups. By the end of 2016, users had collectively saved ₦21 million—a milestone that led to a celebratory email sent to the entire customer base. It was a sign that the product was truly resonating.

The product stood out from traditional banks and thrift systems by offering flexible savings plans, reliable payouts, and visible interest growth. Word-of-mouth referrals and organic social sharing helped drive user acquisition. By the time they rebranded to PiggyVest, they had helped over 53,000 users save close to a billion Nigerian naira (£2,000,000).

Consistent user engagement, retention, and positive feedback throughout this early phase confirmed the product-market fit. PiggyVest had successfully built a digital saving experience that matched the needs and behaviors of its audience.

Go-To-Market Strategy

The product didn’t launch with grand marketing budgets or nationwide campaigns. Instead, it relied on virality, conversations around relatable financial habits, and direct engagement with its early adopters.

Piggyvest’s Twitter-led community marketing strategy helped drive massive organic growth and word-of-mouth adoption. The very first tweet announcing Piggybank.ng led to over 300 sign-ups within 48 hours, demonstrating how closely the idea resonated with real user behavior.

Strategic partnerships with fintech enablers like Paystack and Flutterwave were vital. These collaborations ensured seamless payment processing, simplified onboarding, and efficient payout flows, which were critical to maintaining trust—especially in a market where skepticism about digital finance was high.

Product-led growth strategies were employed especially in April 2019, when Piggybank.ng rebranded to PiggyVest and introduced new features that extended its scope beyond simple savings. The launch was a turning point as the new Safelock feature became an instant hit, locking in millions of Naira in user funds within months.

Nine years on, PiggyVest has continued to innovate and deliver excellent service, cementing its position as Nigeria’s leading savings and investment platform.

“9 years ago, we had a mission to give everyone the power to manage and grow their finances. From the very first person who trusted us with their money to the millions of you who now call Piggyvest home, you have been at the center of this journey.” - PiggyVest Co-founders

From that pivotal launch moment, they’ve remained committed to simplifying personal finance and offering users even greater value with each new product update.

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User Base and Revenue

Today, PiggyVest stands as Nigeria’s leading digital savings and investment platform, serving over five million users. Since its inception in 2016, it has facilitated more than $1.25 billion (₦2 trillion) in payouts to users, underscoring its impact and scale.

From humble beginnings focused on daily savings, PiggyVest has expanded its offerings into a full suite of financial tools. Today, users can access core savings through Piggybank, investment opportunities via Invest, fixed-term deposits with Safelock, goal-based savings through Target Savings, flexible withdrawals with Flex Naira, and dollar-denominated savings via Flex Dollar. These products have empowered young professionals, entrepreneurs, and students to build stronger financial habits, plan for long-term goals, and grow their wealth with greater flexibility.

PiggyVest’s revenue model is built around asset management partnerships and investment commissions, rather than charging users for basic features. This approach—combined with attractive interest rates, flexibility, and trust-driven design—has helped drive both adoption and long-term retention.

Its commitment to accessibility, financial literacy, and product innovation has not only cemented its leadership in the market but also played a pivotal role in shaping Nigeria’s broader fintech ecosystem. While specific revenue figures remain undisclosed, the platform's continued product expansion, growing user base, and massive payout volume are strong indicators of a sustainable and thriving business.

Fundraising Efforts

In 2018, PiggyVest raised $1.1 million in a funding round led by angel investors – its last major venture round to date.

Later in 2021, VFD Group, a Nigerian investment firm, acquired a 12% equity stake in the company. The deal was structured as a mix of cash investment and a merger with one of VFD’s competing products, further strengthening PiggyVest’s market position.

This early capital injection gave the team room to scale operations, build out its core savings infrastructure, and grow its user base.

Since then, PiggyVest has remained largely bootstrapped, focusing on building a solid, revenue-generating business rather than relying on repeated fundraising rounds. The company’s approach to sustainable growth, coupled with a strong product-market fit, has allowed it to thrive in Nigeria’s competitive fintech landscape without frequent capital raises.

What’s Next for PiggyVest in 2025?

In 2025, PiggyVest is planning to introduce a budgeting feature to help users manage their daily expenses and ensure their salaries last until the next payday. This new feature is part of PiggyVest's continued efforts to expand its offerings and help users manage their finances more effectively.

PiggyVest continues to focus on providing tools and services that empower users to take control of their finances.

We recommend PiggyVest if you're looking for a trusted, user-focused platform to save, invest, and now budget. It’s built for people who want better control over their money, without the hassle of complicated financial tools.

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The "Why" Behind Reform

Reform was co-founded in March 2021 by Peter Suhm and Bjørn Lindholm. The inspiration came from a shared frustration with existing form builders, which were either too complex or didn't align with their minimalist design ethos. The goal was clear: to create a form builder that was simple, visually appealing, and easy to use for businesses of all sizes.

“While researching different form builders, I realized that I didn’t like any of them, and when I talked to my startup friends about it, they felt the same way. I asked the developer I had brought on to work on Branch if he wanted to explore this idea with me as a co-founder, and he said yes.” — Peter Suhm.

Building and Launching the Product

The founders kicked off by validating the concept using Rob Fitzpatrick’s “Mom Test” framework. They needed to find out:

1. If people wanted the kind of form builder they were going to make wanted to make

2. If they would be able to find the distribution they needed in the crowded form builder space

In April 2021, they built a landing page using Figma mockups and a hard-coded form to showcase their vision. They invited early feedback from about 20-30 beta testers. Over the next few months, they iterated based on user input to keep the product simple.

The first public version of Reform officially launched in September 2021.

Achieving Product-Market Fit

By the end of 2021, Reform had gained traction with its target audience of small businesses, marketers, and SaaS companies. The minimalist approach resonated with users looking for an alternative to cluttered, feature-heavy tools like Typeform and Google Forms. Feedback during the beta phase indicated strong alignment with market needs, validating their product-market fit within months of launch.

Go-To-Market Strategy

The big moment came in October 2021, when Reform launched on Product Hunt. Preparation for the launch took about 2-3 weeks, focusing on crafting the perfect pitch. The launch was a resounding success:

• #1 Product of the Day and #1 Product of the Week on Product Hunt.

• Peter's tweet about the launch garnered over 100,000 impressions.

• Reform saw 500 new sign-ups on launch day alone.

Users quickly embraced Reform's simplicity and effectiveness.

Justin Jackson, Co-founder of Transistor fm, shared, "Early user of Reform here! Loving the simplicity; I've already switched some things from Typeform to Reform".

Similarly, Christian Randløv Schmidt, CTO of reel energy, noted, "I've been using Reform for a landing page contact form for the past couple of months—really loving it so far! Super clean product and great support."

🎁 Here’s our Product Hunt Launch Template—just in case you’re looking to launch your own product on the platform.

User Base and Revenue

Reform adopted a simple pricing structure, charging $15 per month for its core service. By the end of 2022, the company had built a steady stream of monthly recurring revenue (MRR), though specific numbers have not been disclosed publicly. What is known is that the pricing model helped Reform acquire paying customers quickly while keeping operations lean.

Fundraising Efforts

In 2022, Reform secured funding from TinySeed, a well-known SaaS accelerator, as well as several angel investors. This funding provided the necessary resources to scale the product, enhance features, and expand marketing efforts.

Acquisition by FunnelEnvy

Reform's journey took a pivotal turn in July 2023, when it was acquired by FunnelEnvy, a company specializing in Revenue Funnel Optimization. The acquisition aimed to integrate Reform’s lead capture form capabilities into FunnelEnvy’s broader full funnel optimization services.

Arun Sivashankarn, Founder of FunnelEnvy, stated:

“We believe that forms aren’t just some afterthought you slap on a website to collect data. They’re an essential step in forming a trusted relationship between parties, the critical interaction that demonstrates that the value you’re promising is enough for someone to entrust you with their (often sensitive) information and time. Unfortunately, in our times, clogged inboxes and privacy concerns make it as important as ever to ensure that forms remain an integral part of the digital trust-building process.

As part of my search to make better forms more accessible, I came across Reform and was incredibly impressed with what Peter and Bjørn had built, and just as importantly the manner in which they had built it. We’re humbled and excited to be taking the baton with an unwavering goal: to help you create forms that look great, are awesome to fill out, and integrate with your workflow.”

Since the acquisition, the Reform team has been working on an ambitious product roadmap that aligns with FunnelEnvy’s mission of empowering marketers with tools to increase lead conversion rates, minimize low-quality responses, and seamlessly integrate forms into modern Martech workflows. Reform's updated positioning focuses on delivering advanced features like multistep forms, conditional logic, and enriched data capture to optimize lead generation efforts.

We recommend Reform for your MarTech Stack if you want to build high-converting lead capture forms that minimize spam and improve response quality. Check out our deep dive into the Reform form builder here.

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What to Expect

We will talk about the company’s product or service offering, target market, business model (B2B, B2C, SaaS, etc.), and industry. We explore their growth strategy, go-to-market (GTM) motion, key growth channels, and growth levers that have been crucial to their success.

An unpopular opinion we hold at Marketing In Action is that no GTM motion—whether it’s Product-Led, Sales-Led, or a Hybrid approach—can be truly effective without marketing at its core. Marketing often doesn’t get the recognition it deserves for its role in the entire customer journey, so we thought it only right to give marketing its flowers.

Marketing-Led Growth

While Product-Led Growth (PLG) has become a buzzword, Marketing-Led Growth emphasizes that marketing is indispensable in driving traction and scaling a business. Even in PLG models, marketing collaborates with product teams, sales, customer success, and support to create the best possible customer experience and drive sustainable growth. Marketing achieves this by crafting messaging, creative strategies, and delivering 1-to-many communication throughout every stage of the funnel.

Building Benchmarks and Resources

Each interview will not only provide personal insights but also contribute to a broader goal—aggregating first-hand data to build benchmarks in major areas of marketing. This includes:

• Marketing Reports: So you can benchmark your efforts against companies across SaaS, FinTech, Web3, Healthtech, Edtech, Ecommerce, Agencies, and more, helping you understand how your performance compares across the continent.

• Hiring and Execution: Obtain actionable data and strategies on how to hire the right kind of marketer to execute marketing plans that drive sustainable growth.

🎓 Learn how marketing actually drives growth, then do the work.

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It Takes a Village

We will be interviewing a few founders in the coming weeks. If you have a recommendation for who we should be speaking to, or who you would like to see in this interview series, reply to this email with their names, their companies, and how we can reach them (LinkedIn, Email, Phone, Home address 🙂).

We started this newsletter to share practical marketing examples, templates, and frameworks to tilt the odds better in your favor.

We’re building a village of 5,000+ marketers and founders who want to increase their odds of succeeding at marketing. You’re one of us.

If you want to collaborate or feature your product in this newsletter, check out our media kit, and shoot me an email.