Behind Thepeer’s Shutdown: Co-founder Alleges Fraud, Sparks Outcry Over Startup Accountability

One year after Nigerian fintech Thepeer abruptly shut down despite raising nearly $2.5 million in funding, the startup, once hailed as a bridge between digital wallets, has found itself back in the news.

Sultan Akintunde, popularly known as “Hack Sultan” and co-founder of AltSchool Africa, has come forward to shed light on what he described as the real reasons behind Thepeer’s abrupt shutdown, expressing deep regret for ever co-founding the company.

Recall that Thepeer, founded by Kosisochukwu Chike Ononye (CEO) and Michael ‘Trojan’ Okoh (CTO) alongside Akintunde, shut down operations in 2024, citing regulatory compliance hurdles and slow market adoption of digital wallets.

In a statement at the time, the founders explained that the company faced major obstacles in onboarding wallet providers and sustaining services. They added that wallet payments failed to scale as anticipated, forcing the team to spend heavily on user education.

Part of the statement reads,

“We encountered significant challenges, beginning with compliance issues that prevented us from either onboarding key wallet providers or sustaining their services. Moreover, the market’s acceptance of wallets as a preferred payment medium didn’t scale as anticipated. This necessitated extensive efforts and resources towards educating the populace about our offerings.”

However, in a counter-narrative shared on X (formerly Twitter), Hack Sultan alleged that the company’s collapse was due to fraudulent activities and financial mismanagement, not regulatory barriers.

“One of my biggest regrets in the startup space was Thepeer,” he wrote. “I started this company with Michael Okoh and made Chike the CEO. Things were fine until I discovered $50,000 was spent on cars for a company making less than $1,000 a year.”

He further claimed that over $1.2 million went missing from the company’s accounts, adding that he visited the EFCC office for several days to report the issue. According to him, when he requested an audit to trace the funds, the response from his co-founders was to shut down the company, a move he alleged was an attempt to cover up the missing money.

Akintunde detailed the company’s early beginnings under the name Peerstack, before rebranding to Thepeer. He noted that the startup’s goal was to become “the new NIBSS,” enabling seamless transfers between digital wallets. The early vision attracted backing from two top Nigerian fintech founders and multiple angel investors.

He claimed that both Ononye and Okoh later relocated to the UK, leaving the Nigerian operations unmanaged. “The primary cause of failure wasn’t market readiness or licenses,” he said. “It was poor management, missing funds, and the lack of accountability after the founders left Nigeria.”

In response to the allegations, Thepeer CTO Michael Okoh denied any wrongdoing in an interview with Technext, stating, “We did not misappropriate funds that caused the shutdown of the company.” Both Okoh and Ononye declined to comment on the audit requests or details of the company’s cap table, though Chike Ononye maintained that Thepeer spent less than $1 million of its seed funding before closing down.

These recent allegations have stirred strong reactions across social media, with many Nigerians expressing concerns about the country’s weak startup governance and lack of financial oversight.

One user wrote, “The big mistake most Nigerian startups make is getting funds at once. Funds should be raised but released by milestones.”

Another user @Laolu Afolabi, emphasized the importance of internal checks. He wrote, “Implementation of financial controls is fundamental. When founders have unsupervised access to assets, the potential for misconduct increases significantly.”

@BarristerOfo remarked that the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has a far greater role to play in shaping the country’s business and organizational culture beyond merely processing company filings. According to him, every business requires a strong corporate structure and management system capable of withstanding internal conflicts, emphasizing that Nigeria’s corporate ecosystem needs greater resilience.

Another user pointed out that investors often become blindsided after signing cheques, highlighting the need for stronger oversight and accountability within startups. The user revealed plans for a “startup conformity” framework, which would allow independent professionals to conduct statutory quarterly audits of startups on governance and compliance metrics, aimed at protecting investors and ensuring sustainable business practices.

Launched in 2021, Thepeer hoped to power infrastructure for mainly fintech businesses, from small to medium-sized. The fintech used its APIs to provide 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.

In 2022, the startup claimed its monthly transaction volume had reached millions in dollars, with an average month-on-month (MoM) transaction growth of 161%. The company also had plans to expand to other African countries, including Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt.

The controversy around the startup’s demise underscores deeper issues in Nigeria’s startup ecosystem, from governance and transparency to the need for stronger investor protection and accountability frameworks.