As Ridwan Olalere was going through the selection process to join Endeavor, he texted his friend and co-founder, Rian Cochran: “We can actually go for a $10B company with this. We are going all the way, man.”
The magic of Endeavor was already starting to sink in.
Ridwan’s Endeavor journey started not with the fintech startup LemFi he founded in Nigeria in 2020, but five years earlier, when Ridwan joined a recently launched cross-border payments processing platform called Flutterwave, now worth $3B as Africa’s most valuable startup. It proved fertile ground for Ridwan.
At Flutterwave, Ridwan spent two years building infrastructure that enabled companies like Uber and Spotify to accept payments across Africa, as well as working on a remittance product that never quite took off due to high fraud and chargebacks. Around the same time, Flutterwave’s CEO and founder, Olugbenga Agboola, and COO Ifeoluwa “IO” Orioke became Endeavor Entrepreneurs.
“It was a great moment in the history of that company when [their joining Endeavor] was announced,” Ridwan remembered. “Everyone celebrated it.” It put Endeavor on Ridwan’s radar. And years later, when Ridwan launched LemFi, it helped to put him on our radar, too.
" "This is the first time in our local network that we’re seeing the ex-employee of an existing Endeavor Entrepreneur become one,” marveled Ayobami Glory Olajide from Endeavor Nigeria’s team. "It’s a full-circle moment to see Ridwan joining the network, and that’s impressive.""
Solving remittance
Ridwan was recruited from Flutterwave by Opera Software, where he built a consumer mobile wallet called Opay into a successful product.
The remittance product Ridwan wanted to build, which would serve migrant communities currently underserved by existing providers, needed a company of its own. Instead of the poor service of the typical remittance middleman, this product would provide reliable, low-cost payments settled within minutes directly into the recipient’s preferred bank account or payment method.
To build the company he wanted to see in the world, Ridwan reached out to Rian, his former colleague at Opera, who was the CFO of Opay. Together, they decided to found and create LemFi, which launched in 2021.
Now it has grown to over one million registered users in diaspora communities across Europe and North America, who send $1B monthly to emerging markets including China, India, Kenya, Nigeria, and Pakistan. LemFi’s global ambition continues to grow, and they recently added Asia, including China, to their network.
Back in 2024, Endeavor’s local team in Nigeria knew the time was right to support LemFi in stepping up to the next level.
We categorize companies that have the potential to join Endeavor into four different types. LemFi is a ROCKET SHIP.
Rocket ships are strategic thinkers who are focused on driving efficiency and making something cheaper, faster, and better. They are often skilled managers or MBAs who start companies that apply or adapt a proven model to fill a market gap. Rocket ships tend to have a clear revenue model and formula for growth. They are able to execute effectively and can achieve regional or global scale and rapid revenue acceleration.
When we’re considering potential rocket ship companies, we ask them—and our own internal experts—questions like:
1. Can this company add millions in incremental revenue over the next few years?
2. Is there a well-defined business model with a clear formula for growth?
3. Does the entrepreneur/leadership team have the managerial expertise to execute its growth strategy?
4. Can this company best the competition in cost, execution, and efficiency to gain and maintain market share?
“LemFi is at a critical inflection point,” Ayobami said. “Having already captured 5% of Africa’s remittance inflows, the company is aggressively expanding its geographical reach and product offerings and now is the ideal time for LemFi to join the Endeavor network. The global mentorship, market access, and strategic support from Endeavor would be invaluable as the company seeks to scale further and overcome potential challenges in regulatory compliance and customer acquisition in new markets.”
When our panel of international mentors met to discuss LemFi, they were also impressed.
“Ridwan is a market-maker,” said Guillaume Pousaz, CEO and founder of payment platform Checkout.com and an Endeavor mentor. “It’s very rare at this size. It’s a real tech company and he built everything in-house. He planned well, he hired talent well, the sequencing of his next moves is thoughtful. He knows what he’s doing and he’s up to something really good.”
The most common piece of feedback agreed upon by our selection panel was that Ridwan needed support. “There’s a lot of regulatory scrutiny around money transfer businesses,” said Nicolas Aguzin, former CEO at HKEX (Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing). “LemFi’s model is a bit easier since banks need to be involved, but making sure that they have the right talent around compliance will be very important.”
We also thought that mentoring and coaching for Ridwan as CEO would be crucial as he embarks on this new journey. The team discussed connections they could make and introductions they could offer to support Ridwan and his co-founder going forward. And in the mentorship our team themselves provided, Ridwan realized the impact Endeavor mentorship offered.
" “It was instantly helpful to talk to Guillaume,” Ridwan said. “You don’t find that many people who can understand your challenge before you even say much, and instantly start to provide value." "
“He immediately helped us think about our term sheet, how we should think about that particular race, the different things we as founders should ask for and prioritize. He was able to think ten times ahead of us in terms of how big the business could get. [It’s been so important to join] this group of entrepreneurs who are super experienced. They easily fast track everything and help us make better decisions.”
The potential for impact from LemFi is massive. The company’s massive growth is one element, as it has recently launched India, China and Pakistan as destination markets, and is also expanding its products. In its vision of building the first full-stack financial services hub for the global south, LemFi has the potential to change millions of lives.
The next generation
But looking beyond that individual impact offered both our mentors and LemFi’s founder a sense of how LemFi can tap into the Endeavor Multiplier Effect™, which creates a ripple effect far beyond the success of one company. As entrepreneurs train, mentor, and invest in the next generation, the power of their work and influence expands exponentially. The Multiplier Effect™ offers a way to predict an entrepreneur’s impact on the entire economy of their region.
LemFi could already be considered a result of the Multiplier Effect™ by its very existence, with ties to Flutterwave. Then, there is LemFi’s ability to nurture a new crop of change-makers in Nigeria and across their other operational regions.
“We’re going to have a bunch of really smart, experienced, next-generation founders come out of Lemfi,” says Ridwan. In fact, they already have seen this process begin.
“One of the earliest people whom we worked with has started another company called GeekPay, and they’re raising their Series A at the moment. We have entrepreneurs who have left LemFi to start other companies, and other employees will do the same, and we’ve always been there to support, to recommend them, to help out in any way possible.”
And at LemFi itself? Their global journey has just received a power-up. Today, LemFi has secured $53M in their Series B funding, led by Highland Europe with participation from Endeavor Catalyst, our rules-based co-investment fund. The term sheet advice offered by Guillaume has stood Ridwan and Rian in good stead, and there’s time yet for Ridwan’s text message to come true. LemFi is going all the way.
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