Chimoney, the cross-border payment startup that told customers it was shutting down in May, has been acquired just four weeks later. The Canadian fintech company is now owned by CapitalSage Vantage Limited, a subsidiary of CapitalSage Holdings, which already operates in Nigeria, Kenya, the Gambia, the UAE, and the UK.
Here’s what happened and what it means for Ghanaians who used the service.
What was Chimoney?
Chimoney let businesses send money in 41 different currencies across Africa, North America, and Latin America. If you ran a small business in Ghana and needed to pay suppliers or employees in Nigeria, Kenya, or the US, Chimoney was one of the tools you could use.
The startup raised less than USD 1 million in total funding, which turned out to be a problem.
Why did it shut down?
In May, Chimoney founder Uchi Uchibeke announced the company couldn’t continue. Revenue had stalled. Customer acquisition wasn’t working. “We failed to scale distribution,” he wrote at the time.
The company stopped processing new transactions and began refunding customer balances to return money still held in accounts.
Then what? The unexpected twist
Within days of Uchibeke’s honest shutdown announcement, CapitalSage reached out with an acquisition offer. “The wind-down became the pitch,” he said.
The deal closes in phases to meet Canada’s regulatory requirements under the Retail Payment Activities Act. After the deal is finalized, Uchibeke says all Chimoney investors will be repaid in full, employees will receive payouts from the proceeds, and he will stay on for six months to help with the handover.
What does this mean for you?
If you had money in a Chimoney account when they shut down, you should have already received it back or be in the process of receiving it. The acquisition doesn’t change that.
For future users: CapitalSage now has a Canadian payments license and infrastructure in multiple African countries. If you needed a Chimoney-like service, CapitalSage may eventually offer similar cross-border payment options, though there’s no confirmation yet on when or what that will look like.
The bigger picture: this deal shows how the pan-African fintech space is consolidating. Smaller startups that run out of money don’t always disappear completely. Sometimes a larger company buys their licenses and infrastructure to enter new markets faster.
The smart decision that saved the deal
When Chimoney shut down, Uchibeke kept the company’s Money Services Business registration and Payment Service Provider license active instead of letting them expire. Other founders told him to drop them. “Those licenses are why this deal happened,” he said.
CapitalSage wanted to enter Canada’s payments market without building regulatory infrastructure from scratch. Chimoney’s dormant licenses gave them a shortcut.
What’s next for Uchibeke?
He’s moving on to build APort, a separate AI product, while helping with Chimoney’s transition for the next six months.
What you should do
- If you had a Chimoney account with a balance: check your email for refund instructions if you haven’t received your money yet.
- If you regularly needed cross-border payment tools: watch CapitalSage’s announcements for new services coming to Ghana and West Africa.
- If you’re considering other money-transfer services: this shows that startup risk is real, even for well-intentioned founders. Stick with services backed by regulated financial institutions or major payment networks.
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