Its cloud infrastructure product, Nebula, is also no more. And with both gone, one of the continent’s most ambitious tech stories has come to a quiet and unexpected end.

Okra Introduces Nebula: Africa’s Own Cloud Solution

The company, which raised over $16 million from global investors, officially ceased operations in May 2025. Fara Ashiru Jituboh, the co-founder and former CEO/CTO, confirmed the closure in a statement to Techpoint Africa:

“The company made the decision to wind down operations in May. It was an incredible journey; we built impactful technology, worked with some of the biggest brands across the continent, and helped pioneer open banking in Africa. I’m proud to have worked alongside some of the smartest and most talented people, and I’m deeply grateful for the community, customers, investors, and team who supported us over the past five years.”

Jituboh has since moved on to take up a new position as head of Engineering at the UK-based startup, Kernel, according to her LinkedIn profile. 

Her exit followed a series of quiet internal changes at Okra, including the departure of her co-founder, David Peterside, in 2022. Since then, no successor was publicly named, and by mid-2025, the startup was already off the radar of most in the ecosystem.

Founded in 2019, Okra set out to do something few African startups dared; build the core infrastructure powering open finance. Its APIs enabled users to link their Nigerian bank accounts to third-party applications in real time, offering services from identity verification to income and transaction data sharing.

That initiative attracted early backing, including $1 million from TLcom Capital and a $3.5 million seed round led by Susa Ventures, eventually pushing total funding beyond $16.5 million.

But scale didn’t guarantee survival. In October 2024, in response to high foreign exchange costs that made services like AWS and Azure increasingly expensive, Okra launched Nebula, a naira-denominated cloud platform aimed at local businesses.

Designed to offer Tier 3 and Tier 4 data centres, compliant with African data regulations and billed in local currency, Nebula was intended to reduce dependence on costly international services. It was an aggressive bet on infrastructure, competing against the likes of Nobus and Layer3.

However, tech giants quickly responded by enabling local billing and slashing prices, with AWS and Microsoft reportedly cutting rates by up to 20%. With that, any price advantage Nebula hoped to offer was gone, and customer adoption remained underwhelming.

By March 2025, Jituboh publicly admitted what many in tech were privately whispering, cloud expenses had become unsustainable: salaries aside, server costs were swallowing most of Okra’s revenue. 

The competitive space added further challenges. Startups such as Mono and Stitch, which raised $17.6 million and $52 million respectively, raced ahead in distribution, partnerships, and product sophistication. These rivals had deeper war chests and were able to move faster, often capturing the very market segments Okra once aimed for.

With no external capital infusion publicly announced after 2021, and an economic environment that continued to worsen, the signs were there. Few noticed.

What’s perhaps most notable is how quietly it all ended. No press release or farewell post. Just an update on LinkedIn and a quote to a reporter. For a company that once called itself the “Plaid of Africa,” it was a soft landing that belied the size of its dreams.

Before founding Okra, Jituboh had worked at Canva, BMW, and JP Morgan. She returned to Nigeria to solve a problem she’d experienced first-hand, fintech apps that didn’t connect to local banks. 

Okra’s solution was commendable, building the rails of open finance. And for a while, it worked. Its API usage surged by 175% in early 2020. Partnerships with platforms like Renmoney, Branch, Bamboo, and AIICO Insurance came quickly. Regulators took notice, investors followed.

But between currency depreciation, infrastructure strain, and the leadership vacuum post-2022, Okra’s speed slowly faded. The fintech space had grown more crowded and more difficult. Scaling in Africa without a deep-pocketed backer or profitable model remains a fierce challenge.

Okra’s closure repeats the fact that startups need staying power, but in Nigeria’s current economic situation, even the brightest ideas are fighting for breath.

The company, known for its rugged, low-cost SUVs designed for Africa’s challenging roads, has been having financial difficulties that ultimately led to its shutdown. 

This is despite raising $56 million in funding from investors including Playfair Capital, Chandaria Industries, the US government’s Development Finance Corporation (DFC), and PanAfrican Investment.

Founded in 2009 by British investor Joel Jackson, Mobius aimed to provide affordable and durable vehicles for the African market. Its flagship model, a no-frills SUV, was priced lower than imported second-hand vehicles, a common choice for many African consumers. 

Despite the initial goal, the company faced several challenges including the Kenyan government’s introduction of new taxes that eroded Mobius’ competitive advantage, making its vehicles less affordable.

The company aimed to provide affordable vehicles for small and medium enterprises in sectors like infrastructure and agribusiness, but it faced intense competition from cheaper second-hand imports from countries like the UK and Japan. 

Mobius initially launched a basic SUV model priced at $10,000 (approximately KES 1.3 million), a fraction of the cost of standard SUVs in Kenya. While it released updated models, Mobius II and Mobius III, in 2018 and 2021, the company failed to gain traction in the market.

Mobius Motors had linked its production to pre-orders, requiring a refundable deposit of $384 (KES 50,000), which likely limited the uptake of its vehicles. Attempts to relocate production outside Kenya were dismissed due to logistical challenges.

In a statement, Mobius director Nicolas Guibert announced the company’s decision to enter voluntary liquidation. Creditors are set to meet on August 15th to discuss the distribution of assets.

Mobius’ mission to produce home-grown vehicles in Africa, a sector that has seen increased investment from both local initiatives and global automakers like Toyota and Volkswagen, has come to an end.

These companies, too, face the challenge of competing against the influx of second-hand imports in the region.

The founders pointed to difficulty achieving product-market fit as the reason for the closure of Thepeer.

Founded in 2021, Thepeer aimed to connect wallets from different businesses, allowing users to move money seamlessly. While the concept was promising, attracting users and integrating with businesses proved challenging. The company generated minimal revenue, less than $1,000, despite processing over $500,000 in transactions during the first three quarters of 2023.

African startups are prioritizing the responsible use of investor funds and Thepeer’s founders opted to return capital, representing approximately 15% of the $2.3 million raised, rather than pursue a potentially risky direction with investor money. This decision contrasts with the more common approach of “hustling” to survive, which can sometimes lead to a complete loss of investor funds.

Several factors contributed to Thepeer’s struggles. The African market may not yet be ready for large-scale wallet-to-wallet transactions. Compliance issues and a lack of consistent support from fintech partners further affected their efforts. Additionally, established payment companies like Paystack and Flutterwave were strong competitors.

Finding product-market fit is very important, and sometimes an early shutdown can be the most responsible outcome for both investors and founders. While the market for wallet-to-wallet transactions may hold future potential, Thepeer’s experience drives a different direction, with factors like market readiness and established competition being highly key.

Founded on a mission to enhance digital payments, Thepeer sought to provide an API-based payment layer facilitating seamless money transfers between digital wallets and enabling direct payments for goods and services. However, despite its innovative approach, the startup encountered challenges that ultimately led to its closure.

One of the primary obstacles faced by Thepeer was compliance issues, which impeded the company’s ability to onboard key wallet providers and maintain services effectively. Despite initial efforts to secure licenses and scale regulatory frameworks, compliance remained a persistent challenge, hindering the startup’s growth and operational efficiency.

Thepeer struggled with the slow adoption of wallets as a viable payment option, necessitating extensive resources and efforts to educate consumers and businesses about its value proposition. While the startup’s API-based payments layer promised enhanced interoperability and streamlined transactions, widespread acceptance remained elusive, contributing to its struggle to gain traction in the market.

In light of these challenges, Thepeer’s leadership faced a key decision regarding the company’s future direction. After careful deliberation, Thepeer concluded that returning the remaining capital to investors was the most prudent course of action, pointing to the closure of the startup’s operations.

Michael Okoh and Chike Ononye, the founders of Thepeer, expressed their gratitude to customers, employees, investors, and the tech community for their support and contributions throughout the journey. Despite the setback, the company remain focused on maintaining the platform in maintenance mode while actively seeking opportunities for its future revitalization.

The startup’s closure comes nearly two years after it raised $2.1 million in a seed round led by Raba Partnership, noting the initial optimism and investor confidence in its vision. However, despite early funding and strategic partnerships, Thepeer’s inability to overcome regulatory issues and market challenges ultimately led to its downfall.

Thepeer bids farewell to the fintech sector with its closure reiterating the complexities and uncertainties inherent in the startup industry. The startup will now realign its focus and pursue new opportunities in technology and innovation.

The announcement came via an email sent to Cova users on Tuesday, revealing that the platform will cease operations on February 10, 2024.

“This was an extremely difficult decision, one that was not made lightly,” stated the email. The co-founders assured users that subscription refunds would be processed on or before February 13.

Cova, founded in December 2021 with the aim of being a “single source of truth” for users’ assets, raised at least $800,000 from investors, including prominent angel investor Olumide Soyombo. The platform allowed users to aggregate, manage, and track various assets during their lifetime, while also facilitating the discovery and claiming of assets by beneficiaries after the user’s passing.

In his business memoir “Vantage,” Olumide Soyombo acknowledged that Cova provided an essential solution but revealed that, two years into its existence, the platform failed to gain traction. Ojo, in an undated email to investors documented in Soyombo’s memoir, explained the difficult decision, citing the need to act in the interest of investors and stakeholders rather than depleting funds without a clear path to profitability or decent revenue.

Despite raising substantial funds and having a global user base in the “thousands,” challenges surfaced for Cova in its first year. Ojo highlighted users’ increasing demands for deeper integration, especially those with multiple bank accounts in different countries. Trust also emerged as a hurdle, with the unfamiliarity of the service and reluctance to consider death as an event to prepare for, particularly in African countries.

Cova’s demise comes as a blow to the wealthtech sector, raising questions about the challenges faced by startups providing asset management solutions. While some startups are incorporating next-of-kin details for seamless asset transfer after a user’s demise, others are also entering the space with comprehensive asset management platforms.

It’s essential to note that this Cova is distinct from the Cameroonian insurtech startup with the same name, backed by the Google Black Founders Fund Africa in 2022.