As the Co-Founder of Maplerad, a global financial technology company, he has led a quiet but firm transformation in how businesses send, receive, and manage payments across borders.

His work has placed Maplerad at the centre of Africa’s fintech infrastructure revolution, serving over 3,000 businesses and processing more than $100 million in transactions.

Obinna began this journey with Wirepay, a consumer-facing app designed to support fiat and crypto payments. But when businesses began requesting access to the backend powering the app, a shift occurred. That shift became Maplerad, an infrastructure platform built to solve the recurring challenges African businesses face: fragmented systems, regulatory complexities, and a lack of scalable fintech tools.

Under Obinna’s leadership, Maplerad has expanded into markets including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon, the UK, and the US.

He co-led one of Africa’s largest fintech seed rounds, raising $6 million at a $30 million valuation. The funds have since supported Maplerad’s mission to simplify banking processes through scalable APIs, identity and compliance tools, and multi-currency solutions.

What sets Obinna apart is his systems-based thinking. His approach combines regulatory alignment, technical product development, and strategic expansion. He has worked closely with regulators to ensure Maplerad’s compliance with financial laws across all regions of operation, while also developing tools that allow SMEs and large enterprises to build without needing in-depth knowledge of licensing or payments systems.

Maplerad’s offerings include virtual USD cards, multi-currency wallets, cross-border FX, and on-demand account issuance. These tools are not only helping African companies to grow but also enabling them to compete internationally.

For Obinna, the vision is clear: to remove barriers and create one infrastructure layer that allows fintechs, marketplaces, and SMEs to launch and scale financial products within minutes.

Beyond operations, Obinna is building a culture. He has assembled a distributed team across continents, promoting a working environment where performance, curiosity, and purpose align.

To him, success lies not just in financials but in the ability to support businesses through reliable infrastructure and strategic guidance.

Obinna Chukwujioke may not always be in the spotlight, but his work is powering the engines of Africa’s fintech boom.

Through Maplerad, he is creating not just a company but a foundation upon which future innovators can build. And in doing so, he is helping redefine what’s possible in African finance.

The fund will enable the acquisition of more customers for Maplerad, enhance the process to get additional licenses and build its team, as well as deepen its reach across Africa.

Other investors were Golden Palm Investments Corporation, Michael Vaughn — ex-COO, Venmo, Fintech Fund, Babs Ogundeyi — CEO, Kuda, Armyn Capital, Dunbar Capital, Strawhat Investment, Polymath Capital, Unpopular Ventures, Sean Mahsoul and MyAsiaVC.

Founded by Miracle Anywanwu and Obinna Chukwujioke, Maplerad is a Banking-as-a-service platform just coming out of stealth. 

While in stealth, Maplerad processed millions of dollars monthly for over 100 businesses acquired on its platform. These businesses included Pastel, Spleet, Bridgecard, Onboardly, Vella, Crowdforce, Dojah, and GetEquity, among other banks. 

Maplerad’s founders first launched WirePay in 2020, helping users make international payments by offering cross-border payment solutions in fiat and cryptocurrency. 

Gradually the focus moved to a self-described all-in-one finance product enabling users receive, hold, and make payments in multiple currencies, create virtual and physical cards, and pay bills.

Wirepay raised undisclosed pre-seed funding last year from Golden Palm Investments Corporation, Greenhouse Capital, some Stash executives, and Berrywood Capital, including a $125,000 check from OnDeck.

As Wirepay grew to over 50,000 users, mainly in Nigeria, the need for businesses to leverage the infrastructure powering Wirepay, its license coverages, and banking relationships grew; hence, Maplerad was created.