---
title: "Why TiketMobile shut down"
description: "TiketMobile, a Nigerian mobile bus-ticketing startup founded by Celestine Ezeokoye with co-founders Constance Okoghenun and Joseph Benson-Aruna, ran through a small Tony Elumelu Foundation grant, lost ground to rivals Oya.com.ng and Bus.com.ng, briefly pivoted to airport e-hailing via a Kouba Transport Services partnership, and ultimately went dark, with its website and social accounts inactive since 2016."
canonical_url: "https://liners.com/graveyard/tiketmobile"
markdown_url: "https://liners.com/graveyard/tiketmobile.md"
type: "graveyard"
language: "en"
image: "/graveyard/tiketmobile/certificate.png"
published_at: "2026-07-31T17:41:07.836Z"
updated_at: "2026-07-31T17:41:07.836Z"
---

# Why TiketMobile shut down

TiketMobile, a Nigerian mobile bus-ticketing startup founded by Celestine Ezeokoye with co-founders Constance Okoghenun and Joseph Benson-Aruna, ran through a small Tony Elumelu Foundation grant, lost ground to rivals Oya.com.ng and Bus.com.ng, briefly pivoted to airport e-hailing via a Kouba Transport Services partnership, and ultimately went dark, with its website and social accounts inactive since 2016.

## Breadcrumbs

- [Graveyard](/graveyard)
- [TiketMobile](/graveyard/tiketmobile)

## Summary

Here lies TiketMobile. It let Nigerians find and buy interstate bus tickets by phone, launched on a small Tony Elumelu grant. The grant ran short, rivals took the routes, and an airport e-hailing pivot couldn't revive it. It booked a one-way ticket.

TiketMobile, a Nigerian mobile bus-ticketing startup founded by Celestine Ezeokoye with co-founders Constance Okoghenun and Joseph Benson-Aruna, ran through a small Tony Elumelu Foundation grant, lost ground to rivals Oya.com.ng and Bus.com.ng, briefly pivoted to airport e-hailing via a Kouba Transport Services partnership, and ultimately went dark, with its website and social accounts inactive since 2016.

## Product history

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Fate | ShutDown |
| Primary cause | FundingRunway |
| Stage at shutdown | Pre-seed |
| Lifespan in days | 1095 |

## Autopsy report

## What the product attempted

TiketMobile was a mobile ticketing platform letting Nigerians find and buy interstate bus tickets from their phones, founded by Celestine Ezeokoye (CEO), Constance Okoghenun, and Joseph Benson-Aruna.

## What worked

Won a $5,000 grant from the Tony Elumelu Foundation and later attempted a revival by pivoting into airport e-hailing services in partnership with Kouba Transport Services in Abuja.

## Early warning signs

The CEO described the Tony Elumelu Foundation grant as "just enough to get them stranded"; the startup also turned down a $25,000 angel offer from Jason Njoku's SPARK fund and faced direct competition from Oya.com.ng and Bus.com.ng.

## What happened

TiketMobile launched as an interstate bus-ticket booking app, secured a small Tony Elumelu Foundation grant that proved insufficient, and lost ground to competitors Oya.com.ng and Bus.com.ng. After the CEO published a controversial blog post, the company went quiet, briefly resurfaced with an airport e-hailing pivot via Kouba Transport Services, and its website and social media accounts have been inactive since 2016. Its founders moved on to roles at Interswitch, Vconnect, and Jobberman, among others.

## Sources

- [TiketMobile Rises From The Dead Naturally. Naturally, We Have Questions](https://techcabal.com/2015/03/13/tiketmobile-rises-dead-naturally-questions/?ref=startupgraveyard.africa): TechCabal

## Related pages

- [TiketMobile alternatives](/tiketmobile/alternatives)
- [Liners Graveyard](/graveyard)

## Access and citation

- [Canonical HTML page](https://liners.com/graveyard/tiketmobile)
- [Markdown route index](/sitemap.md)
- [Agent access guide](/llms.txt)