Entrepreneur Spotlight
This week’s trailblazer is Tosin Eniolorunda, the visionary founder of Moniepoint, a Nigerian fintech unicorn now valued at over $1 billion. Born in September 1985 in Lagos, Tosin grew up in a household that blended technical insight with educational values — his father was an engineering contractor, and his mother a teacher. From a young age, he observed the daily struggles of small traders and businesses in his community: inconsistent access to banking, slow payments, and limited access to capital. These early observations ignited a fascination with financial systems and the power of enterprise to create real impact. He attended the University of Ibadan Staff School and Command Day School in Odogbo, before earning a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University in 2007. Even during his school years, he demonstrated an aptitude for problem-solving and innovation, participating actively in the Junior Engineers, Technicians, and Scientists (JETS) Club, where he honed both his technical skills and his curiosity about how systems worked.
After graduation, Tosin began his professional journey at Interswitch, Nigeria’s leading payment processing company. Starting as a software engineer, he quickly rose through the ranks to senior software manager, unit head of application development, and product manager, contributing to landmark projects such as the first scalable POS software widely adopted across Nigerian merchants. It was during this period that Tosin developed not only technical expertise but also a deep understanding of the challenges African businesses faced in accessing reliable financial infrastructure. He realized that the continent’s entrepreneurial energy was immense, but structural gaps in payments and banking were holding businesses back.
In 2015, armed with both insight and ambition, Tosin co-founded TeamApt, later rebranded as Moniepoint. His goal was simple but ambitious: create a fintech platform that could provide seamless digital payments, business banking, and credit access to African businesses. The early days were far from easy. Convincing investors that a solution focused on small and medium enterprises in Africa could scale globally proved difficult, and regulatory hurdles slowed expansion plans. On top of this, many merchants were skeptical of digital payments, preferring familiar cash-based systems. Tosin tackled these challenges head-on by prioritizing user trust, implementing intuitive and reliable systems, and conducting hands-on merchant education to demonstrate the platform’s value. Scaling the platform while maintaining quality and security required relentless operational discipline and strategic leadership, qualities Tosin exhibited consistently.
Through perseverance and innovation, Moniepoint expanded its offerings to a full-fledged fintech ecosystem, handling billions in transactions monthly and serving over 400,000 businesses. In 2024, the company raised $110 million in a Series C funding round led by Google’s Africa Investment Fund and Development Partners International, officially achieving unicorn status with a valuation exceeding $1 billion. Beyond the numbers, Moniepoint’s impact is tangible: businesses that were once constrained by financial gaps can now access loans, track revenue, pay employees efficiently, and scale operations, creating jobs and stimulating economic activity. Tosin’s approach exemplifies his philosophy that private enterprise can serve public good — building profit-generating ventures that also empower communities.
Tosin’s journey is a blueprint for African entrepreneurs: identify real gaps, persist through skepticism, marry innovation with trust, and scale with operational excellence. From his early curiosity in Lagos to leading one of Africa’s fastest-growing fintech platforms, Tosin Eniolorunda has not only built a business; he has created a system that transforms how African businesses operate, proving that vision, grit, and strategic thinking can turn local ideas into global impact.
