Why Nigerian fintech, Theeper, is shutting down after raising $2.1 million

One of Nigerian fintechs, Theeper, is shutting its operations nearly two years after raising $2.1 million in a Seed round.

The company’s founders cited compliance issues as one of the main reasons they decided to wind down. They also blamed it on the slow acceptance of wallets as a viable payment option in Nigeria contrary to their expectations at the beginning of the business.

In an uncommon gesture in the history of Nigerian startups that have shut down in recent times, the founders said they would be returning unspent capital to their investors. They, however, did not disclose the amount to be returned to the investors.

Theeper’s Seed round had participation from angel investors, institutional investors, and other investors like Ezra Olubi, Byld Ventures, and Stitch.

Theeper’s sunset

Announcing the decision to shut down the company via a statement released on Monday, Theeper’s founders—Kosisochukwu Chike Ononye (CEO) and Michael Okoh (CTO), said:

“April 1st holds significant meaning for us. Is it a day of playful pranks, or a nod to our founding date? Perhaps a subtle homage to Apple’s beginnings. Yet, regrettably, it also marks the sunset of our journey.

“We embarked on a mission to create something unprecedented, a unique method for transferring money between digital wallets and making payments for goods and services directly from these wallets. Yet, we soon realized that exceptional technology alone wasn’t sufficient.

“Our unique service had its challenges, the first being compliance issues that hindered us from launching key wallet providers or maintaining their services.

“Additionally, the overall acceptance of wallets as a viable payment option didn’t grow as rapidly as we had hoped, this meant we had to spend a lot of time and resources educating people about what we do.

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