---
title: "Why WeJapa shut down"
description: "WeJapa, a Lagos talent marketplace matching African developers with global employers, was engulfed in an August 2020 scandal after developers publicly accused founder Favour Ori of underpayment and mistreatment. An investor-commissioned probe (Calmhill Partners) found him \"high-handed,\" and he stepped down as CEO in October 2020 for a CTO role under new CEO Hauwa Aguillard. No official shutdown was ever announced, but the company's public presence and website went inactive by around 2021."
canonical_url: "https://liners.com/graveyard/wejapa"
markdown_url: "https://liners.com/graveyard/wejapa.md"
type: "graveyard"
language: "en"
image: "/graveyard/wejapa/certificate.png"
published_at: "2026-07-31T17:41:07.836Z"
updated_at: "2026-07-31T17:41:07.836Z"
---

# Why WeJapa shut down

WeJapa, a Lagos talent marketplace matching African developers with global employers, was engulfed in an August 2020 scandal after developers publicly accused founder Favour Ori of underpayment and mistreatment. An investor-commissioned probe (Calmhill Partners) found him "high-handed," and he stepped down as CEO in October 2020 for a CTO role under new CEO Hauwa Aguillard. No official shutdown was ever announced, but the company's public presence and website went inactive by around 2021.

## Breadcrumbs

- [Graveyard](/graveyard)
- [WeJapa](/graveyard/wejapa)

## Summary

Here lies WeJapa. It matched African developers with global employers, the founder screening each application himself. In August 2020 developers went public over pay and treatment, a leadership change followed, but trust never returned. The site quietly went dark by 2021.

WeJapa, a Lagos talent marketplace matching African developers with global employers, was engulfed in an August 2020 scandal after developers publicly accused founder Favour Ori of underpayment and mistreatment. An investor-commissioned probe (Calmhill Partners) found him "high-handed," and he stepped down as CEO in October 2020 for a CTO role under new CEO Hauwa Aguillard. No official shutdown was ever announced, but the company's public presence and website went inactive by around 2021.

## Product history

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Fate | ShutDown |
| Primary cause | FounderTeam |
| Stage at shutdown | Pre-seed |
| Lifespan in days | 790 |

## Autopsy report

## What the product attempted

WeJapa was a mediated talent marketplace matching African software developers with global employers, with the founder personally screening applications; developers paid only after securing work.

## What worked

Raised roughly $50,000 from angel investors and Microtraction; built an initial developer and employer base and ran hackathons/screening cycles in its first months.

## Early warning signs

In August 2020, multiple developers publicly accused CEO Favour Ori on Twitter of underpaying or not paying for work and of mistreating staff; Microtraction commissioned an independent investigation within three days of the allegations surfacing.

## What happened

The Calmhill Partners investigation found Ori had been "high-handed" in his dealings; he apologized publicly on August 22, 2020, took a leave of absence, and in October 2020 stepped down as CEO to become CTO, with Hauwa Aguillard taking over as CEO. Despite this leadership change and reputation-recovery efforts, WeJapa's public activity faded and its website became non-functional, with no official closure ever announced.

## Sources

- [Update: Investigators Find Former Wejapa CEO, Favour Ori Guilty of High-handedness](https://technext24.com/2020/10/20/update-investigators-find-former-wejapa-ceo-favour-ori-guilty-of-high-handedness/?ref=startupgraveyard.africa): TechCabal
- [Investigating WeJapa's founder and his flawed talent matching product](https://techcabal.com/2020/08/25/wejapa-investigation-favour-ori/): TechCabal
- [WeJapa's Favour Ori steps down from CEO position](https://techmoran.com/2020/10/19/wejapas-favour-ori-steps-down-from-ceo-position/): TechMoran
- [The Biggest Scandals That Shook Nigeria's Startup Space In 2020](https://weetracker.com/2021/01/19/nigerian-startup-problems/): Weetracker

## Related pages

- [WeJapa alternatives](/wejapa/alternatives)
- [Liners Graveyard](/graveyard)

## Access and citation

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