Thepeer Shutdown Revisited: Allegations Of USD 700 K Missing, USD 50 K Spent On Cars & Cover-Up

The 2024 closure of Nigerian fintech startup Thepeer is back in the spotlight following new, detailed claims from a company co-founder, shedding more light on the internal disputes that led to its demise.

Thepeer, which built an API for digital wallet interoperability, shut down in May 2024. At the time, shareholders had cited over USD 1.2 M in unaccounted funds and alleged the founders avoided a requested audit before closing shop. It was later reported that the company returned USD 357 K to investors, seemingly moving on from the audit demands.

Now, Sultan Akintunde, who helped midwife Thepeer and current co-founder of AltSchool, has shared his account of the events leading to the shutdown.

In a series of posts, Akintunde stated that the primary cause of Thepeer’s failure was not market fit but “fraudulent activities and missing money” that he discovered. He alleges the company’s shutdown was “an attempt to cover the missing money.”

Akintunde claims that after he left the company due to strategic misalignment, he discovered that USD 50 K had been spent on car purchases for a company generating less than USD 1 K in annual revenue. This prompted a deeper look into the finances, leading him to calculate that approximately $1.2 million was unaccounted for.

He provided an email from March 2024, sent to then-CEO Chike Ononye, in which he expressed discomfort with the company’s management and a lack of investor updates for over six months. In the email, Akintunde, identifying as the third-largest shareholder, formally requested investor reports, an audited account, and a call to address his concerns.

According to Akintunde, the response to his email and the request for an audit was for Ononye and co-founder Michael Okoh to “rush and shut down the company.” He states that when he presented the USD 1.2 M figure, Chike Ononye provided a valid explanation for only about USD 500 K leaving roughly USD 700 K unexplained.

He also cited a subsequent call where Ononye reportedly promised him view access to the accounts for a “mini audit,” only for the next major communication to be the announcement of the company’s shutdown.

Akintunde further alleged that both Ononye and Okoh relocated to the UK without leaving anyone to handle crucial partnerships, which he believes crippled the operations of a company that thrived on integrations.

Thepeer’s closure and the circumstances around it remain a notable event in the African tech ecosystem, highlighting the complexities of governance and founder disputes.



This is a developing story…