August 22, (THEWILL) – They are young, under 30, innovative and are go getters. They are Somto Ifezue, Odunayo Eweniyi and Joshua Chibueze, the faces behind PiggyVest, an online savings and investment platform that provides its predominantly millennial and Gen Z users across Nigeria, with access to savings and investment products that drive wealth creation and preservation.
In a layman’s terms, it is an automated savings and investment platform that helps Nigerians put aside little sums of money daily, weekly or monthly towards a target and then present them with micro-investment opportunities that gives them competitive rates that they can use to then grow their funds.
The mission of PiggyVest is to democratise and simplify financial services for the next generation and become the dominant savings and investment platform across the African continent and other emerging markets. For seven years since its inception, they have continued to deliver excellent services to their millions of users, helping them manage their finances, which is worth billions, with simplicity and transparency.
PiggyVest did not become an overnight success. The co-founders, who began their entrepreneurial life as students of Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, had failed in eight other businesses before they became successful with PiggyVest. Despite their initial failure, they remained business partners afterwards.
They established 500Dishes, 99Startups, FrontDESK, among many others fintechs, before they succeeded with PushCV, which aided their success with PiggyVest. The co-founders had equipped themselves with the experience of their failures and continued to dig and explore the Nigerian market until they struck gold with PushCV, a service that provides unlimited access to pre-screened and fully tested candidates for top organisations.
With PushCV, the three finally found a problem they could solve without external factors deciding their fate. The failure of their other startups was caused by factors beyond their control, like offline transactions among merchants and customers that they couldn’t control. So it is safe to say, failure was the key to unlocking PiggyVest. It prepared Ifezue, the CEO, and Lead Product Engineer; Eweniyi, the Chief Operating Officer and Chibueze, the Chief Marketing Officer, for the success that the untapped savings culture embodied.
So while they continued with PushCV, building over a million users, it didn’t stop them from innovating a new idea now called PiggyVest. One of the co-founders, Chibueze, had seen a tweet talking about the local personal savings called Kolo, a box shaped plank or tin young adults use to save their money back in the days. That was when the idea to establish PiggyVest came alive. The trio leveraged on their millions of users, their technical know-how and right partnership to build a formidable business. Today, the company easily makes the list of Nigeria’s most valued fintech startups. Having caught the eye of the international community, they recently got selected into the Endeavor’s Global Network by a panel of global business leaders. As part of Endeavor’s network, they will gain access to comprehensive, strategic, global support services, including introductions to local and international business mentors, investors, and volunteers from Fortune 500 consulting firms who will help them address key needs. The three were selected to represent the growing expectation for exceptional entrepreneurs with big ambitions and the ability to execute at scale. But that is not all. PiggyVest via its parent company, Piggytech, acquired Abeg Technologies and renamed it Pocket. PiggyVest via Abeg, is the headline sponsor of the Big Brother Naija Reality TV show. Ironically, Abeg Technologies was one of the official sponsors of the reality show last year, where it pumped in a major sponsorship fee of 2 billion naira. But with the naira depreciation and increases in prices of goods and services, your guess is as good as mine as to how much Abeg Technologies invested in the on going reality show.
Ivory Ukonu is a versatile journalist with many years of experience, with entertainment and society reporting as her area of core competence.
