Okra

Open banking solutions

🇳🇬 Nigeria Developer Tools & CloudShut down

Epitaph

“Here lies Okra. It pioneered open banking in Nigeria, opening APIs so others could build on financial data. Its Nebula infrastructure pivot showed promise but drew users too slowly to justify more capital, so Okra returned the unused funds and closed the connection itself.”

Overview

Born: 2019 (Year)
Died: July 2025 (Month)
Lifespan: 6 years
Fate: Shut down
Headquarters: 🇳🇬 Nigeria
Category: Developer Tools & Cloud, Fintech
Stage at death: Series A
Primary cause: Business model or unit economics
Contributing causes: Funding or runway, Founder or team, Infrastructure dependency

Death certificate

Timeline

2019Okra founded
Nigerian open banking API startup launches
January 2022Series A raised
$12M led by Base10 at a $92M post-money valuation
October 2022Co-founder David Peterside departs
Business/go-to-market lead exits, slowing growth
May 2025Decision to wind down
CEO Fara Ashiru announces internal decision to close the company
2 July 2025Okra shuts down
Company formally closes and returns roughly $4-5.5M in unused funds to investors

Autopsy report

Why did Okra shut down?

Okra, Nigeria's pioneering open banking API startup, shut down on July 2, 2025 after nearly six years. Co-founder/CEO Fara Ashiru Jituboh said the company chose to wind down proactively after its cloud infrastructure pivot, Nebula, showed early promise but adoption was too slow to justify further capital, and Okra returned an estimated $4-5.5 million in unused funds to investors.

What Okra attempted

Open banking APIs giving businesses access to financial data to build products, later pivoting toward a cloud/data infrastructure product called Nebula.

What worked

Raised $4.5M in pre-seed/seed and a $12M Series A (Base10-led, $92M post-money valuation); worked with major brands across the continent and was seen as a pioneer of open banking in Africa; gave staff severance of up to six months' salary on wind-down.

Early warning signs

Revenue reportedly shrank after co-founder David Peterside (business/go-to-market lead) departed in October 2022; heavy reliance on screen-scraping limited infrastructure scalability; Nebula saw only early, non-mission-critical adoption despite data-sovereignty tailwinds.

What happened

Naira devaluation and technical scaling limits pressured the original API business; a pivot to the Nebula cloud infrastructure product failed to gain sufficient commercial traction; CEO Fara Ashiru announced an internal decision in May 2025 to wind down, and the company formally shut down on July 2, 2025, returning unused investor capital.

Lessons for future builders

Early promise is not adoption speed, and infrastructure bets need real commercial traction before they earn more capital. Set clear adoption milestones for a pivot up front, and be willing to return money rather than fund a product the market takes too slowly.