Entrepreneurship has become a widely celebrated career path. The thought of owning your own is fast becoming a force influencing alot of entrepreneurs. Others feel the need to solve a given problem and sometimes it is both. The entrepreneur wants to solve a problem at the same time own his or her own. However, entrepreneurship has also been agreed to be a tough and tasking job.
The story of Mr Eniolorunda could be what some call inspirational and what others tag as. He chose pay a huge sacrifice, he left his place of work Interswitvh to work on that need to feel the gap in financial services. Mr Tosin Eniolorunda loves to build and this is seen in his life along the years.
It did not take a long time for two of his ex colleagues at Interswitch to join him bring his dream to reality- Felix Ike and Odun Adeboye. Together Team Apt was birthed.
In an interview with Peace Itimi, Eniolorunda disclosed the journey of Team Apt to Moniepoint.
Team Apt built software solutions for banks. They built mobile apps for banks like Sterling Bank,Unity Bank. Banks also used their mechant acquiring solution like Zenith Bamk, Fusrt BANK, Providus. This Bank payed up front making it possible to bootstrap.
In an interview with Techpoint Africa, Eniolorunda made it known that most businesses pay more attention to getting investments rather than pursuing their goal.
He said, ” Since people will jump on you when you have value, it’s better to prove that you have value first, then come back to place demand on that value.”
The company was intentional about not taking investment. Team Apt made profit in its first two years and was making seven figures in a year.
Challenges lead to the branch from building software for bank to owning their own. The company was separated to continue legacy and focus on new. They then tried to raise capital which yielded 5 million dollars in 2 weeks
The team was separated into two; on part focusing on online payment and the other on offline payment. That lead to moniepoint and moniefy. After receiving reports, the CEO noticed the increasing number for Moniepoint. He then saw the need to solve the problems of offline payments and Moniepoint became main focus.
Moniepoint growth over the last 5 years
According to the information on Wikipedia,In March 2019, Moniepoint announced funding of $5.5 million in a Series A fundraising from Quantum Capital Partners. In November 2019, Moniepoint received a switching license from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
In 2021, the company announced an undisclosed capital in a Series B Funding round led by Novastar Ventures. It also fundraised the $50 million in pre-series C funding led by QED investors.
In March 2023, Moniepoint led the $3 million seed investment round for Nigerian neobank Payday.
In July 2023, the company launched a personal banking service.
In October 2024, Moniepoint became the eighth unicorn out of Africa after the announcement of a US$110 million in Series C fund raise led by Development Partners International’s African Development Partners (ADP) III fund, Google’s Africa Investment Fund and Verod Capital while existing investor, Lightrock also participated in the round.
In 2022, Moniepoint was named One of the Most Promising Fintech Startups by CB Insights and also won the Financial Inclusion Award.
In 2023, Moniepoint got listed by the Financial Times as the Second-Fastest Growing Company in Africa.[15] Also, it was awarded the Rising Star Family Business award organized by Business Day and PwC Nigeria. Team Apt as a brand transformed to Moniepoint. It fused their identity into one.
In 2024, Best Hospitality Industry Support Fintech award at the Hotel Industry Excellence and Sustainability Awards (HIESA).
The company is one of the largest financial institutions in Nigeria.
On October 29th, 2024, Moniepoint became a unicorn with 110 billion dollar from investors.
What does that mean? For a business to be a unicorn it means the start up is valued to be 1 billion dollar or more.
Edited by: Oladeji Olabisi
