Cardtonic Shares Self-Funding Fintech Playbook at Web Summit

In Short

• Cardtonic says it has over 1.8 million active users and has grown mostly without institutional funding.
• Its Growth Lead, Tomi Oduyemi, delivered a Web Summit Vancouver 2026 masterclass on June 5.
• The talk focused on building a “self-funding” fintech, meaning revenue pays for growth.

What Happened

Nigerian fintech Cardtonic appeared at Web Summit Vancouver 2026 with a masterclass titled “Building a Fintech That Funds Itself: 1.8M+ Users Later.” Tomi Oduyemi, the company’s Growth Lead, walked founders through how Cardtonic expanded from a gift card trading product into a multi-product payments app.

Oduyemi said the company started in 2018 with 5 million naira in founder savings. The early operating rule was simple, “How does this bring in money?” not “How fast can we grow?” She framed revenue as a feedback signal, because it shows what customers value and what the business can afford.

The session also covered how Cardtonic adapted to regulatory shifts that affected its crypto off-ramp offering. That led the team to spin out those flows into Breet, a separate product, rather than forcing everything to stay under one brand.

Over time, Cardtonic added services like virtual dollar cards, tap-to-pay cards (contactless payments using NFC, the same short-range tech used for tap-to-pay on phones), eSIMs (digital SIMs you install without a physical card), bill payments, and gadget commerce. Oduyemi said many of these features came from watching where users “kept hitting a wall” and building around those pain points.

Cardtonic later raised $2.1 million in December, according to the speaker. She said the money was tied to building Pil, a B2B spend management platform, which typically needs heavier compliance and liquidity set-up.

Why It Matters

Across African fintech, growth is often measured by fundraising headlines. Cardtonic’s message is that profitability and cash flow can be a strategy, not a constraint.

For operators, the key takeaway is product sequencing. When margins are thin, teams tend to build what can sell now, and that discipline can shape everything from hiring to pricing.

For founders planning card products, cross-border payments, or business finance tools, the talk is also a reminder that regulation can force structural decisions. Spinning out a product can reduce risk and keep the core business moving, even if it complicates the product suite.