Nigerian fintech Chimoney shuts down after failing to raise enough capital to survive

Nigerian-Canadian fintech Chimoney, founded in 2022 by Uchi Uchibeke, has shut down after failing to raise sufficient capital, ceasing all new transactions and integrations as of May 1, 2026.

Chimoney built cross-border payment infrastructure allowing businesses to pay freelancers, contractors, and vendors across Africa, North America, and Latin America via a single API, supporting payouts in 41 currencies through bank transfers, mobile money, airtime, gift cards, and stablecoin off-ramps.

The startup raised under $1 million in total capital, far too little to operate a multi-jurisdictional fintech at venture scale. Uchibeke acknowledged the strategy mismatch: 'Trying to operate at venture scale on bootstrap capital was the wrong strategy.'

The immediate signal for Nigerian startups and their enterprise clients is that undercapitalised payment infrastructure is a systemic risk, not just a startup problem.

Any business currently using a small or mid-tier fintech API for payroll, contractor payments, or cross-border transactions should audit the financial health of those providers now, before a similar shutdown forces an emergency migration.

Over the coming months, as African startup deal volumes remain compressed and early-stage funding stays scarce, more infrastructure-layer startups operating on thin capital may face the same fate as Chimoney, making vendor diversification a practical risk-management strategy, not just a nice-to-have.