“Why I left Flutterwave over negative energy” – Iyin Aboyeji finally reveals [VIDEO]

Former CEO/co-founder of Flutterwave and co-founder of Andela, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, has finally opened up on his rough exit from the unicorn fintech startup Flutterwave.

Flutterwave is an African-based fintech company that provides a payment infrastructure for global merchants and payment service providers across the continent. The company was founded in 2016 by Iyinoluwa Aboyeji and Olugbenga Agboola and is headquartered in San Francisco, California with operations in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa and seven other African countries

In his latest interview with Nigerian Journalist Chude Jideonwo, Iyin Aboyeji shares how he helped to build the foundation of Flutterwave for three years, from 2016. Unfortunately, Iyin and Gbenga Agboola, the current CEO of Flutterwave started having issues which led to him handing over to the latter and exiting the company in 2018.

“If you’re the founder of a business and this guy who you told about the business rightfully helped you, and is now telling you what to do, there’s bound to be some negative energy. And that’s really kind of what happened. Once I sensed the negative energy, I was just like… here’s the crown, goodbye” Iyin recounts.

Watch the video below:

Upon his stepping down in 2018, Aboyeji disclosed in a statement on his Twitter.

Part of the statement read,

“Today will be my last day at Flutterwave. After much thought and prayer, I decided to step down from my role as CEO and focus on giving back to the startup community I owe so much of my success to.”

It’s been amazing working with @theflutterwave team to build another great African company and I’m excited for the future under its new leadership under @TechProd_Arch pic.twitter.com/8tTK8oOBWK

— Iyinoluwa Aboyeji (@iaboyeji) October 15, 2018″

In 2021, Flutterwave raised a US$170 million Series C funding round. At the time, this was the largest amount ever secured by an African tech startup and gave it a valuation of over US$1 billion, making Flutterwave a unicorn.

Aboyeji, who earned a bachelor’s degree in legal studies from the University of Waterloo, is now the general partner of Future Africa, a platform he founded to provide capital, coaching and community for mission-driven innovators.

After co-founding Future Africa, he served as the deputy director-general for Madam Oby Ezekwesili‘s 2019 presidential campaign. He also helped in building Andela and Flutterwave, two of Africa’s technology companies. He is also the Co-founder and Chairman of the Talent City Inc, a construction company