Nigerian eCommerce startup, Bumpa, has announced the passing away of its co-founder and CTO, Adetunji Opayele. According to reports, TeeJay, as he was fondly called, was involved in a car accident.
Adetunji Opayele and Kelvin Umechukwu launched Bumpa in 2021 to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across Africa manage their operations more efficiently.
According to a statement seen by Innovation Village, Kelvin said, “This is honestly one of the most distressing things I’ve ever been through, and I imagine it’s the same for all of us who were close to Teejay. He wasn’t just a cofounder to me; he was my friend, my brother, my fight partner, and a brilliant engineer. Teejay was family to me, and this is honestly one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to deal with in life.”Â
Bumpa allows merchants to set up online stores, manage inventory, process payments, track sales, and handle customer relationships—all via a mobile app without needing any technical expertise. The platform also integrates with social commerce channels like Instagram and Facebook, enabling users to manage orders directly from these platforms.
In 2022, Bumpa secured $4 million in a seed funding round led by Base10 Partners, the largest black-led fund in the world, which it channelled into developing the future of commerce for African sellers.
In December 2023, Bumpa acquired Fyyne, a Toronto-based beauty tech startup that offered a marketplace for beauty services and business management tools for independent beauticians. This strategic move aimed to enhance Bumpa’s service offerings and support its expansion into new markets.
He will be surely missed in the ecosystem….
