Three young Nigerians launch ChatPay waitlist, target banking friction on WhatsApp

Three young Nigerian entrepreneurs have opened the public waitlist for ChatPay, a conversational banking platform they say is designed to simplify financial transactions by enabling users to send money, pay bills and buy airtime directly within WhatsApp.

The founders, Adeoluwasubomi Odebunmi, Aseoluwa Siyanbola and Abraham William, said they created the Lagos-based fintech startup after experiencing the everyday frustrations associated with traditional banking services, including failed transfers, app downtime and cumbersome payment processes.

Operated by CP Technology Limited and headquartered on Ikorodu Road, Maryland, Lagos, ChatPay is currently in a controlled rollout and is working with licensed banking partners as it moves toward a full public launch.

According to the company, the platform is being developed to allow individuals and businesses to carry out financial transactions without leaving a WhatsApp conversation.

Speaking on the inspiration behind the product, Adeoluwasubomi Odebunmi, Product Lead and Co-Founder of ChatPay, said the idea was born while she was still studying Software Engineering at Babcock University.

“I saw the gap while I was still in school—how much friction there was just to move money. I didn’t want to just study the problem. I wanted to help fix it,” Odebunmi said.

The company said Odebunmi, a recent graduate of Babcock University, previously worked on software projects spanning e-commerce, real estate management, school administration systems and artificial intelligence-driven medical diagnostic tools before co-founding ChatPay.

Aseoluwa Siyanbola, Growth Lead and Co-Founder, said his motivation came from watching Nigerians abroad struggle to access banking services back home.

According to him, repeated OTP failures and unreliable banking applications prompted him to explore open banking solutions before meeting his co-founders.

“We’re not three people who met at a big company and decided to start something together. We each ran into the same wall on our own and found each other while looking for a way through it,” Siyanbola said.

Siyanbola, who is currently studying in the United States, said the founders have been developing the platform together since they were 19 years old.

Also speaking, Abraham William, Tech Lead and Co-Founder, said the company is focused on making financial services more accessible by removing unnecessary technological barriers.

“Technology should not make people feel left behind. We are building ChatPay so that anyone, regardless of their technical knowledge, can access financial services through something as familiar and simple as a conversation,” William said.

According to the company, William leads the platform’s technology strategy, system architecture and engineering, drawing on experience in fintech, artificial intelligence, blockchain and enterprise software.

ChatPay said the platform’s money transfer and payment features are being introduced in phases as regulatory approvals and banking partner certifications are completed.

The company added that while its long-term ambition is to make conversational banking accessible to millions of users across Africa, it is taking a phased approach to deployment.

As part of its rollout, ChatPay has opened a public waitlist for early access and launched the “Founding 2,500” initiative, a community of early users who will test new features, provide feedback and help shape the product before its wider release.

According to the founders, interested users can join the waitlist through their official website.

Founded by Odebunmi, Siyanbola and William, ChatPay said it aims to enable individuals and businesses to send money, pay bills, buy airtime and manage payments directly within WhatsApp once the platform is fully launched.