The archive · Money & Fintech · Financial decision · 2018–2024
Chipper Cash's FTX bet: a $2B Africa unicorn cut to $1.25B when its lead investor died
Chipper Cash's no-fee Africa transfers peaked at a $2B FTX-led valuation; after FTX collapsed it cut a third of staff, refocused on Africa and neared profit
Chipper Cash
What the business is
An African cross-border payments app: no-fee peer-to-peer transfers plus FX, airtime, crypto and stocks from one wallet, across seven African countries and later the US and UK.
How it started
In 2018, Ham Serunjogi and Maijid Moujaled founded Chipper Cash to give Africans a no-fee, peer-to-peer cross-border payment service. Sending money to sub-Saharan Africa was then the most expensive corridor globally, and their answer was an app that made transfers 'as simple as a text message.'
What happened
By 2021 Chipper served seven African countries — Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Africa, Kenya — and expanded into the UK and US. It raised $100M (Series C, SVB Capital) in May and a $150M extension led by FTX in November, taking its valuation just above $2B. Gross revenue grew from $8M in Q1 2021 to about $169M in Q1 2022; TPV went from $213M to $1.65B. FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried framed the deal as accelerating crypto adoption in Africa.
How it ended up
FTX collapsed in November 2022. Alameda's documents showed Chipper's valuation had been marked down to $1.25B and it had taken an extra $35M SAFE from FTX. Chipper laid off 12.5% of staff in December 2022 and roughly 100 more in February 2023 — about a third of the workforce in three months — before narrowing to core markets and products. It survived; by March 2024 the CEO said it was nearly profitable and focused on Africa.
Background
Chipper Cash was founded in 2018 by Ham Serunjogi and Maijid Moujaled to let Africans send money across borders for free, through an app instead of slow, expensive bank corridors. Sending money to sub-Saharan Africa was then the most expensive remittance corridor in the world.
Growth came fast. By 2021 Chipper served seven African countries and was entering the UK and US; it raised $100M from SVB Capital in May and a $150M extension led by crypto exchange FTX in November, hitting a $2B valuation. Revenue grew 21x in a year — but the flagship round's lead investor was Sam Bankman-Fried's exchange.
FTX collapsed in November 2022. Alameda's records showed Chipper's valuation marked down to $1.25B. Chipper cut 12.5% of staff in December 2022 and about 100 more in February 2023 — a third of its workforce in three months. The company insisted it had no exposure to FTX's collapse and narrowed focus to core African markets and products.
Chipper survived. In March 2024 the CEO said the company was 'almost profitable,' moving US and UK roles to African hubs. The FTX bet cost it a third of its value and a third of its people — but the underlying payments business outlived its most famous investor.
What has to be true
- The product was real: no-fee cross-border transfers grew gross revenue 21x in a year, so the unicorn story was not pure hype.
- The valuation, however, was anchored to one investor: FTX's collapse forced a 37.5% markdown and two layoff rounds within three months.
- Leaning into crypto — FTX's narrative, its 'Pay with Chipper' integration — amplified contagion when the exchange died.
- Chipper survived by doing the unglamorous thing: cutting a third of staff, moving roles to Africa and chasing profitability instead of the next round.
What can be applied
A marquee investor is not a moat: Chipper's network grew revenue 21x in a year, but its $2B valuation sat on FTX's balance sheet — when that vanished, markdown and layoffs followed within months.
Aftermath
As of September 2026, Chipper Cash still operates as a cross-border payments app focused on African markets. Per the company's March 2024 update, it moved US/UK roles to African hubs, was 'almost profitable' and expected cash-flow positivity in H2 2024; no new priced round has been reported since the FTX-era valuation, and recent financials are not public.
Sources
- Chipper Cash gets $2B valuation with $150M extension round led by FTX
- FTX marked down Chipper Cash's $2B valuation to $1.25B
- Chipper Cash executes second round of layoffs less than three months after axing 12.5% of staff
- An Update on Q1 2024 Organizational Changes
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