Thepeer, a Nigeria-based API startup has shut down.
The company released a statement on Monday April 1st, announcing the “Thepeer sunset”
According to the statement, the company highlighted two major challenges leading to the shutdown.
- Compliance issues which hindered the launch of key wallet providers
- Acceptance of wallets didn’t grow as rapidly as expected, forcing the company to divert time and resources into educating people
The statement also added that the company couldn’t align the product with market needs.
Co-founders Kosisochukwu Chike Ononye and Michael “Trojan” Okoh, launched Thepeer in April 2021.
According to the co-founders, the startup started out with hopes of offering something “unprecedented”
They had created “ a unique method for transferring money between digital wallets and making payments for goods and services directly from these wallets.”
They were out to solve the problems of mobile wallet interoperability.
Thepeer presented its APIs as an alternative network where fintechs and businesses can embed different sets of products into their applications and websites for easy money movement by their customers.
Funding came in shortly after launch.
The startup raised a pre-seed round of $220,000 from investors including Ezra Olubi, Paystack Co-founder, and Prosper Otemuyiwa, Edenlife CTO.
A year later, in June 2022, the startup raised a $2.1 million seed round led by the Raba Partnership.
Other investors in the round included RaliCap, Timon Capital, BYLD Ventures, Musha Ventures, Sunu, and Uncovered Fund.
In 2022, the startup said it had achieved an impressive average month-on-month (MoM) transaction growth of 161%.
It also declared its monthly transaction volume reaching millions in dollars.
Before the shutdown , Thepeer had hoped to connect wallets across over 400 fintechs throughout the continent to enable payments.
The company also had plans to expand to other African countries, including Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt.
According to reports, Thepeer will return its remaining capital to investors and place the product on maintenance for now.
“Thepeer will be placed on maintenance mode for the interim. We’ll work to maintain the platform for as long as possible until we discover a new home for it.” the statement said.
