In Nigeria’s startup ecosystem, where funding announcements often arrive with fanfare and founders are lionised as vanguards of digital transformation, failure is still a hushed affair. But the recent collapse of Okra — a once-celebrated API fintech startup — has reignited debate about how founders should exit when the party’s over.

Founded in 2019, Okra was widely seen as a frontrunner in Africa’s open banking revolution. Its core proposition was simple but potent: build secure APIs that connect bank accounts to digital services — Africa’s answer to Plaid. And for a time, it worked. Backed by heavyweight investors like TLcom Capital, Susa Ventures, and Base10 Partners, Okra raised over $16 million, onboarded high-profile clients like Bamboo and Renmoney, and claimed exponential API usage growth.

Then, quietly, it was gone.

The Unannounced Exit

The startup’s shutdown, confirmed by co-founder and CTO-turned-CEO Fara Ashiru Jituboh, came with no formal blog post, no farewell statement, and no clarity for investors or the wider public. “The company made the decision to wind down operations in May,” she told Techpoint Africa, which spotted the shift after her LinkedIn profile reflected a new role as Head of Engineering at UK-based Kernel. Her co-founder, David Peterside, had stepped away from the company earlier in 2022.

What was left behind? A murky trail of speculation. According to sources, Okra is now in the process of returning unspent capital to investors — potentially $4 million to $5 million out of the $16.5 million raised — though no official figures have been disclosed.

The closure did not come out of nowhere. In 2023, Okra began shifting its focus from open banking to cloud infrastructure — a drastic pivot justified by Nigeria’s crippling FX crisis, rising cloud service costs, and the need for local alternatives to AWS and Azure. This move birthed Nebula, an in-house naira-denominated cloud platform.

“There’s a cloud built here, for us, and it’s just as good — if not better,” Ashiru had said in March 2025. But insiders say the pivot was too ambitious, too late, and insufficiently funded. Competing against global giants with billion-dollar war chests is difficult enough. Doing so while navigating Nigeria’s patchy infrastructure and currency volatility made the battle near-impossible.

Now, sources say Nebula too has shut down.

Not That It Ended — But How

For some in the Nigerian startup scene, Okra’s closure wasn’t the issue. The silence was. Investors, employees, and supporters were left with no clear roadmap, no post-mortem, and no lessons from one of the ecosystem’s most well-known names. It’s a trend that, according to many, has become all too common.

“The kerfuffle this week over another high-profile startup failure feels all too familiar,” wrote Future Africa founder Iyinoluwa Aboyeji in a widely shared post. “But amid the noise, one thing no one seems to be talking about is how poorly the communication around the exit was managed.”

Aboyeji didn’t mince words. “As an investor in over 100 startups, I’ve seen too many founders we’ve backed attempt to leave through the back door. They disappear quietly, without explanation… Investors are left guessing, employees feel blindsided, and the public is left to write its own narrative.”

His advice? “Leave through the front door. Own your story.”

Not everyone is condemning Okra’s final chapter. Uwem Uwemakpan, Head of Investment at Launch Africa Ventures, offered a more empathetic perspective. “Returning capital when the path is unclear isn’t failure, it’s integrity,” he said. “Sometimes the most courageous decision is knowing when to stop.”

Indeed, returning millions of dollars in unspent capital is rare in Africa’s early-stage landscape, where transparency is still maturing. Only a handful of startups — including Thepeer in 2024 — have attempted to do so. But even that gesture has its complications. In Thepeer’s case, an attempt to return $500,000 of the $1.6 million raised led to investor pushback and demands for a forensic audit.

Okra’s return process appears to be faring better — at least for now — though investors remain mum on specifics.

The startup’s quiet demise has brought fresh scrutiny to how Nigerian startups manage failure. While the global tech world has learned to celebrate productive failures — often with open retrospectives and public insights — the African ecosystem still treats shutdowns as taboo.

Why? Part of it is cultural. Another part is reputational risk. Many founders fear that failure will not only destroy their current venture but damage future fundraising prospects and even their public standing.

But silence creates its own problems. It hampers investor trust, prevents the community from learning, and erodes morale. More importantly, it stifles the very culture of resilience that an emerging ecosystem like Nigeria’s desperately needs.

Could Okra Have Done Things Differently?

Absolutely. While the company was within its rights to wind down and redistribute capital, it missed a critical opportunity to lead by example. A well-crafted exit narrative — acknowledging challenges, owning decisions, and offering transparent accounting — could have elevated its legacy rather than obscuring it.

As Aboyeji noted, “If we want more founders to take the leap to build bold, ambitious companies, we need to show them that there’s life — and pride — on the other side of failure.”

The Okra story highlights a sobering truth: Africa’s startup boom will only be sustainable if it builds not just successful launches but also dignified exits. Founders must communicate candidly. Investors must demand accountability, not just returns. And the ecosystem must treat failure as part of the process — not a shameful secret to be hidden.

Failure may be inevitable. But disappearing shouldn’t be.