The winding down of Moniepoint’s venture, MonieWorld, a remittance service that allowed Nigerians in the UK to send money directly to Nigeria through bank cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay, just 16 months after launch has elicited several questions about the decision.
Although Moniepoint’s official explanation is that it wants to redirect its technical, capital and operational resources towards its core African markets, Nigerian techpreneur Victor Asemota, who sits on several boards, including Flutterwave since 2017, believes the shutdown reveals a deeper challenge that many African businesses struggle with: exits.
According to him, Moniepoint’s decision to wind down MonieWorld after spending £1.2 million on administrative expenses to establish its UK operation, and then committing $2.5 million to acquire Bancom Europe, could be an indication that the unicorn is planning something bigger.
“Once you see a big African player trimming and going deep, you will understand that it is trying to do something even bigger,” he wrote in a post on LinkedIn.
For many African startups, finding a viable exit can be an uphill task, particularly when raising fresh capital becomes more difficult and investors begin looking for ways to realise returns on their investments.
African startups raised $1.44 billion as M&A deals hit record high
The first half of 2026 was relatively strong for African startups from a funding perspective, with companies across the continent raising a combined $1.44 billion, slightly above the $1.42 billion raised in H1 2025, accoording to reports by TechCabal Insights.
But beneath the headline funding figure, another development was reshaping the ecosystem.
As fresh equity became harder to secure, particularly for early-stage startups, companies increasingly turned to mergers and acquisitions rather than shutting down. H1 2026 recorded 63 M&A deals, nearly double the 33 deals recorded in H1 2025 and the busiest half-year for mergers and acquisitions in African tech history.
The increase in M&A activity has created stronger market leaders through consolidation while also opening more potential exit opportunities for founders and investors.
Several deals reflected this shift. In payments, Flutterwave acquired banking platform Mono in an all-stock deal valued between $25 million and $40 million, while Paystack acquired Brass and integrated Ladder Microfinance Bank.
African startups also used acquisitions to expand internationally. Spiro acquired UK engineering firm Coexlion, Nomba acquired a Canadian payments company, and Yassir acquired French ad-tech firm Kawarizmi.
Larger corporate transactions also contributed to the M&A wave, including nCino’s $75 million acquisition of South African cybersecurity company DocFox and MNDR’s $119 million acquisition of insurtech pioneer Bima.
While not all of these transactions represent founder or investor exits, the increase in M&A activity demonstrates that selling or combining businesses is becoming an increasingly important part of the African technology ecosystem.
“My bet is on more consolidation and exits. Why waste your time doing low-margin and stressful remittances when you can buy other ventures or even banks doing more margin locally? They acquired Orda earlier this year, and that should hint at their new direction. All the other African fintech acquisitions should show a similar trend,” Asemota said, regarding possible motives behind Moniepoint’s decision.
Asemota wants to build a market for African business exits
It is against this backdrop that Asemota says African entrepreneurs should focus less on discussions around talent shortages and more on building businesses that can ultimately be sold.
Asemota, who is the growth partner of AnD Ventures, a capital firm that invests in early-stage startups and helps build them into innovation leaders, said African businesses should “focus on building and selling ventures than having endless conversations on talent and pipelines.”
“Now is prime time to build and do exits,” he said.
He added that he is working on Exits.Africa, a project designed to facilitate more business exits across the continent.
“I am now working on a project named Exits.Africa to facilitate more of this. We need more motion, more exits, and less talking. That is how true ecosystems are built,” he declared.
A review of the Exits.Africa website shows that the project is still under development, with the platform stating that ‘every business should have an exit strategy because founders don’t live forever.’
The project describes itself as ‘The continent’s pioneer exits platform’ and is currently inviting users to join a waitlist to be notified when the platform launches.
For Asemota, Moniepoint’s decision to retreat from remittances is therefore part of a broader conversation about where African fintech companies should deploy capital and how founders and investors can eventually realise value from the businesses they build.