CapitalSage buys Chimoney 4 weeks after shutdown

Four weeks ago, Uchi Uchibeke announced that Chimoney, the cross-border payments startup he had spent four years building, was shutting down. The product worked, he said. The capital ran out. He wound down cleanly, was going to return every client dollar, and was moving on.

Today, Chimoney is coming back.

CapitalSage Vantage Limited, a subsidiary of CapitalSage Holdings, has entered into an agreement to acquire Chi Technologies Inc., the Canadian federal corporation that operates as Chimoney. Upon closing, Chimoney becomes CapitalSage’s first payment entity in Canada, and the platform will relaunch as a cross-border payments infrastructure business serving the Africa–Canada corridor and beyond.

Technext, which broke the story of Chimoney’s shutdown and published the only right-of-reply interview with Uchibeke during the wind-down, confirmed the acquisition after reviewing the official press release and receiving direct responses from the founder.

Who CapitalSage is

According to the press release, CapitalSage Holdings is a multinational group operating across fintech, agribusiness, manufacturing, and healthcare in Nigeria, Kenya, the UK, the UAE, and The Gambia. Its Group CEO, Abiola Bawuah, spent over 25 years in banking across Africa, serving most recently as CEO of United Bank for Africa’s operations across 20 countries. Its founder and Group Managing Director, John Adedamola Alamu, built CapitalSage from a microlending operation seeded with ₦100,000 in 2014 into a multi-sector conglomerate operating across three continents.

The two flew to Toronto this week to sign the agreement in person at OneEleven Innovation Hub, a detail confirmed in the press release that signals institutional commitment rather than a remote or preliminary arrangement.

What the Chimoney-CapitalSage deal includes

The press release confirms that every Chimoney investor will be settled in full upon closing and that the Chimoney team will participate in the transaction proceeds. Faheed Alli-Balogun, Head of Product, and Hammed Babatunde, Head of Operations, are both joining CapitalSage to support the relaunch. Uchibeke will lead the transition for six months before handing operations to the CapitalSage team.

The transaction will close in phases to accommodate Bank of Canada re-registration requirements under the Retail Payment Activities Act. The press release also confirms plans to activate a US payments corridor as part of the relaunch, expanding beyond the Africa–Canada corridor Chimoney originally served. The PSP and MSB licences Uchibeke preserved during the wind-down, which he has said multiple people advised him to let lapse, are central to the deal’s value.

In his direct responses to Technext, Uchibeke described how the deal came about. He did not pitch CapitalSage. They found him through coverage of the wind-down. “Control your narrative and the right people find you,” he wrote. In his responses to Technext, he added: “Chimoney has been one of the hardest and most-rewarding things I have done. It took a lot from me but I am grateful for the outcome.”

That sequence places Technext’s reporting inside the story. Our coverage was among the publications that reached CapitalSage, and Uchibeke’s exclusive right-of-reply responses formed part of the public record that shaped how the shutdown was understood by the market.

Read also: Chimoney user still awaits promised $355.28 refund 38 days after shutdown

What the acquisition means for unresolved shutdown cases

Technext’s second story on Chimoney, published on May 25, documented a structural gap in the wind-down process: end users of third-party apps built on Chimoney’s API fell outside the direct refund process. One anonymous user had a $355.28 balance frozen since April 17 with no resolution at the time of publication.

Asked about this directly, Uchibeke told Technext: “Chimoney under CapitalSage is engaging all former clients on a case-by-case basis, which includes addressing any outstanding end-user situations from the wind-down period.”

On the specific $355.28 dispute, Uchibeke told Technext he needed to verify the settlement status before responding, adding: “I want to make sure anything I say is accurate rather than restating a prior position without checking.” Technext has separately reported that Pixel Pirate Studio, the company operating the Off Road Champion app through which the funds originated, told the user in writing on May 28 that they had not received any funds from Chimoney. That discrepancy remains open, and Technext will update when a verified response is received.