Tosin Osinbodu, the founder of Nigerian startup, Chaka, has exited the company five months following its acquisition by Rise. Chaka allows retail investors to purchase shares from the NYSE and other foreign stock exchanges.
As per his LinkedIn profile, Osinbodu has moved on to join Alpaca, a company that develops Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for trading stocks and cryptocurrencies.
The recently merged companies are now solely helmed by the founder of Rise, Eke Urum. In a LinkedIn post, Osinbodu expressed his excitement about the future roadmap of both entities under Urum’s leadership.
Eke Urum, who introduced himself to Chaka users a few weeks ago as the company’s new CEO, has confirmed that while Tosin Osinbodu has transitioned to a new company, he still retains shares in Chaka and will continue to provide advisory services.
Eke Urum confirmed that prior to Tosin Osinbodu’s transition to Alpaca, they both went through a process where Osinbodu gradually transferred the day-to-day decision-making of Chaka over to him. Urum also pointed out that former employees of Chaka continue to provide operational support.
The two founders had previously gave assurance that even though Chaka’s ownership and cap table would be updated, their products would stay separate. However, Osinbodu’s exit raises speculations whether Chaka and RiseVest are likely to merge or continue as separate entities.
Established in 2019, Chaka allows users to invest in shares of publicly traded companies in Nigeria and the United States with as low as $2. Chaka became the first trading start-up to be granted a digital sub-broker license in March 2021.
In his role as Executive Director of Sales for Alpaca, Osinbodu will aim to broaden Alpaca’s presence in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. Alpaca currently facilitates over 130+ investment services for neobanks and wealthtechs.
We are hoping that a three-way partnership [with Rise, Chaka, and Alpaca] will come out of this new working relationship.
Eke Urum