The Nigerian founders who turned travel frustrations into a fintech

Building a $47 million fintech to fix cross-border payments for African travellers is a massive feat. But getting past embassy visas? That’s a bug no line of code can fix. Before launching Timon, co-founders Oluwatomi Ayorinde and Chizaram Ucheaga spent years navigating the frustrations of travelling on a Nigerian passport—from rationing physical cash envelopes in India to watching bank cards fail in Paris. They channeled those headaches into building an independent multi-currency travel card, scaling to over 100,000 users across 16 African markets. But when US crypto accelerator Alliance backed the startup, familiar border barriers resurfaced: while the investment funds arrived in just two weeks, an expired US visa meant only one founder could board the plane to California. In this edition of Digital Nomads, EMMANUEL NWOSU traces how two Nigerian founders relocated to Nairobi to engineer a $47M travel stack—and why physical borders remain the ultimate bottleneck for African entrepreneurs.

Securing an invitation to Y Combinator (YC), the Silicon Valley startup accelerator, is a milestone for any startup founder—until the logistical hurdle of securing a US visa threatens to derail it.

Oluwatomi Ayorinde, co-founder of Timon, a startup that issues cards to frequent travellers, learnt this the hard way in 2016 when his previous startup, Mobile Forms, was invited to interview for YC’s California headquarters. It was his first time in the US, and he had very little time to prepare.

Facing a backlog at the American Embassy in Lagos that threatened to run out of time for their interview window, Ayorinde and his team scrambled for help. Investor Kola Aina of Ventures Platform, which had backed the startup, intervened, according to Ayorinde, reaching out to contacts who could help expedite their visa interviews at the US embassy. The embassy eventually granted the visas with days to spare.

“Have you ever tried calling an embassy line? Nobody picks it,” Ayorinde said.

Mobile Forms did not secure admission during that cycle, but the experience left a lasting impression. It was one of the many friction points Ayorinde would encounter while travelling on a Nigerian passport—a reality that led him to renew his US visa even without immediate travel plans.

The journeys that came before Timon

In 2010, Ayorinde chose India over a master’s degree. He had convinced his parents to let him pursue a three-month professional course in Systems, Applications, and Products (SAP) software, which he considered a lucrative skill at the time. Relatively few people had the certification, according to him, and studying in India was cheaper than pursuing a master’s degree.

Accessing money was the problem. His mother relied on Nigerians travelling to India to bring him cash. On one occasion, her pastor delivered it. Ayorinde kept the cash in an envelope and spent it gradually.

In 2011, he joined SAP, the German software company, and was sent to the country for a seven-day work event. He spent a full day queuing at the German embassy to submit his application, and the visa arrived so late that he missed the first two days, according to him.

“It was a seven-day event, and when the visa came out, they gave me a visa for that exact seven days,” he said.

Germany also exposed him to the difficulties of spending money abroad. Ayorinde said he relied on a GTBank dollar card, issued by the Nigerian tier-1 lender, which he could fund by swapping naira for dollars through the bank. Some payments went through. Others failed.

Chizaram Ucheaga, who would later become Ayorinde’s co-founder at Timon, had similar experiences.

In 2013, he travelled to Kenya for a week to help a US company collect data for a medical facility it was supporting. He carried cash and relied on his host to pay for things. His GTBank dollar card worked inconsistently on later trips to the UK and the US. In 2018, on a trip to France, the card failed one day, and he handed cash to another traveller who paid with a foreign fintech card.

By then, both founders had experienced the limitations of Nigerian bank cards abroad, although their travels had also opened them up to new opportunities.

Travel also changed how both men worked. Ayorinde said he conceived the idea for his first business in Kenya, which brought him back to Nigeria to build it.

“My best ideas come when I’m not in Nigeria,” Ayorinde said. “I think I started to realise that if I really wanted to rest, it was going out of the environment that I’m already used to and being in a whole different environment. That was rest for me, and that got my brain thinking, because the first idea for my first business was right there in Kenya.”

To afford more trips, he stopped planning separate holidays. He extended work trips by three to five days and covered the extra costs from savings.

Building a business for nomads

During a later visit to Kenya, Ayorinde began to appreciate what travelling did for his work. Being away from Nigeria gave him room to think, meet people, and experience different ways of living. It was during that trip that he conceived the idea for his first business, which eventually brought him back to Nigeria to build it.

Over the years, he also developed a way to travel without spending too much. Rather than plan separate holidays, he extended work trips by three to five days, using the extra time to explore while covering his personal expenses from savings. The UK was an exception. He had cousins who could accommodate him, making spontaneous visits relatively affordable.

Ucheaga said travelling also changed his expectations of everyday life. Beyond the difficulty of making payments, he began to notice the difference in public services and infrastructure between Nigeria and other countries.

“It kind of opened my eyes to see how things work in different places,” he said. “Sometimes Nigeria just sells you the short end of the stick. You just assume that that’s how it is and that’s how it will be forever. But then when you travel around, and you see that people could get a better quality of life, they can demand more from the government, and the government can do better for the people.”

Years later, these experiences would influence the founders’ decision to build Timon and eventually relocate from Nigeria to Kenya, where they believed they could build a business serving travellers across multiple countries.

Moving to Kenya

South Africa was Ayorinde’s first choice when he considered leaving Nigeria. He had visited Cape Town, liked it, and secured a South African work permit. He wanted somewhere close to home, about a six-hour flight away. He also considered the UK, but his application for a Global Talent Visa (GTV) was rejected.

Kenya won him over. He had sold his previous business, PayForce (formerly CrowdForce), which later got him into YC and was acquired by FairMoney in 2023, so he had savings to make the move. On a visit to Kenya, he met founders who convinced him that Nairobi offered better opportunities.

“I felt that I connected better with people there,” he said.

He also noticed that many venture capital firms had their main offices there. In Europe, America, or South Africa, he felt he would be “just another taxpayer”.

He returned with his wife for three weeks over Christmas to test it. By the end, she was convinced. The couple agreed to spend two to three years in Kenya, and then spend a few years in several countries.

Ucheaga was drawn by Kenya’s quality of life and growing tech ecosystem. He had spent years building businesses in Nigeria, including Clymb Technologies, an agent banking startup. But he felt a global travel business needed a clearer head than Nigeria allowed.

In Kenya, he found a different experience. When electricity failed, he said residents could call their power provider and have the fault resolved, sometimes within 30 minutes. He also found that networking happened outside formal business meetings. After work, he could play padel and meet investors or other founders on the court.

Relocating, however, came with immigration hurdles. Ucheaga said they initially considered Kenya’s digital nomad permit but eventually pursued work permits with the help of an immigration lawyer.

The move also gave both founders proximity to investors and an opportunity to build Timon, which they launched in 2024, beyond the Nigerian market.

A mobility problem that needed a solution

Ayorinde’s idea for Timon came from a London currency exchange shop during a UK trip. He had gone there to change cash into pounds when he saw an elderly man being issued a travel card. Curious, he asked why the man could not use his regular bank card. The attendant explained that the card let travellers hold different currencies and exchange money before a trip, avoiding repeated conversion fees.

It planted the thought that cards could be issued for a specific purpose outside traditional banks.

“So I would say that travelling gives you better ideas,” Ayorinde said. “You see how people live their lives very differently from what you’re used to. It also sparks conversations and ideas.”

He and Ucheaga had met in 2021 through an entrepreneurship programme at their church. According to Ucheaga, he was the first person Ayorinde called after selling PayForce. They asked more than 20 people whether they still struggled to pay when travelling abroad. Many said yes. Ucheaga said Timon connects directly to Visa, the payments giant and card issuing network, rather than leaning on bank infrastructure, a process that took more than 15 months with Visa and a bank.

They launched Timon in September 2024. By the second quarter of 2026, it had processed more than $47 million in transactions and crossed 100,000 users across 16 African markets, Ayorinde told Disrupt Africa. The startup earns revenue through transaction and service fees, as well as revenue-sharing agreements with partners.

Two founders, one visa

In July 2026, Timon secured an undisclosed investment from Alliance, a US-based crypto accelerator. According to Ucheaga, the founders had applied unsuccessfully twice and nearly abandoned their third attempt until an Alliance founder personally encouraged them to apply again.

They were accepted within hours of the interview. Alliance completed its due diligence and wired the money within two weeks, Ucheaga said.

“They move fast,” Ucheaga said of US investors. “They have a conviction. They move fast because they won’t lose this big opportunity. It’s almost like they can see into the future.”

Then came the visa limitation, as Ayorinde faced in 2016. Ucheaga could not attend the in-person sessions from Alliance in the US.

“I couldn’t go for the trip because my own B2 visa had expired years ago,” he said. “Sadly, I didn’t have the foresight like Tomi [Ayorinde] did to rush when [US President] Trump was coming in to get his own, so I couldn’t make it. There were some online sessions, so I was able to join that, and it was helpful getting [in touch with] founders who Alliance funded before, who built great stuff, learning from them as well.”

Visa restrictions remain a broader obstacle to African mobility. According to the African Development Bank’s 2025 Africa Visa Openness Index, African travellers still needed visas in advance for 51.1% of possible country-to-country travel combinations within the continent, up from 47.1% in 2024.

The cost of travelling is not limited to flights, accommodation, and foreign exchange (FX) charges. Delays or restrictions on entry can also determine which professional opportunities a traveller can pursue in person.

Ayorinde and Ucheaga have built a business that helps Africans spend money abroad. But the Alliance experience showed the limits of what they could solve. Both founders had secured a place in the accelerator. Only one could make the trip.

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When the United States extended its $100,000 H-1B fee, experts predicted skilled foreign workers would simply pivot to alternative visas like the O-1 or student tracks. The reality? There was no workaround—just a systemic shutdown. In this episode of Digital Nomads, EMMANUEL NWOSU breaks down US State Department data revealing that non-immigrant visa issuances contracted by one million in just five months year-on-year, with H-1B entries plummeting 52%. For African talent, the door is slamming shut: continental visa entries were halved, while total US visas issued to Nigerians collapsed by an astounding 86.7%.

In our last Digital Nomads edition, we examined the US Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) proposed $103,265 H-1B fee and what it could mean for the next generation of foreign workers trying to enter the United States.

Two critical developments have occurred since then. First, the public comment window for the DHS’ proposed policy closed on September 24. Second, US President Donald Trump extended the $100,000 H-1B fee by another year.

First introduced in September 2025 for a twelve-month duration, the surcharge will now remain active through September 2027, despite pending appeals court challenges.

The H-1B visa allows US employers to sponsor foreign professionals in specialised occupations, chiefly across technology, engineering, and advanced technical fields.

The $100,000 surcharge targets skilled professionals applying from abroad—a pathway heavily utilised by nationals of India, China, and Nigeria, all of which have ranked among the programme’s top ten beneficiary countries since at least 2024.

If enacted, the broader DHS proposal would extend the fee to all cap-subject H-1B petitions, including in-country workers adjusting their status. This dual-track strategy provides the administration with alternative legal avenues to restrict entry should one measure be struck down in court.

To evaluate how these policies have reshaped global talent flows, we analysed US Department of State immigration datasets spanning Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 through FY2026.

H-1B visa issuances plummeted 52% during the first five months of FY2026 (October 2025 to February 2026, the latest period for which data is available). Across all non-immigrant visa (NIV) categories, total issuances contracted by one million year-on-year over the same window. Across Africa, issuances were halved, while Nigeria—formerly the continent’s largest source of US visas—suffered an 86.7% collapse.

Initial expectations suggested that as the H-1B surcharge constrained offshore hiring, foreign talent would pivot toward alternative visa classifications. Instead, data from the current fiscal year reveals a systemic contraction—and in several countries, an outright collapse.

The H-1B cliff

Trump signed the proclamation, mandating US employers to pay $100,000 to sponsor foreign talented employees on the H-1B visa. The administration’s rationale was to curb visa abuse, allowing companies to sponsor foreign talent they genuinely need, and freeing up jobs for US citizens.

In the five months that followed that order, the visa became a less familiar route for US immigration.

**US President Donald Trump says his administration wants to curb illegal immigration and protect jobs for its citizens. Image Source: Aaron Schwartz for CNP/Bloomberg**

H-1B issuances fell from 115,164 recorded in October 2024 through February 2025 (FY2025) to 55,057 in the same five-month window of FY2026, a 52% drop.

Against FY2023’s comparable period, it was down 55%. The visa that built Silicon Valley’s engineering base had been halved in under a year.

India, which accounts for the majority of H-1B issuances globally, saw its numbers fall from 79,395 in the first five months of FY2025 to 30,593 in the same FY2026 window, declining by 61.5%.

January and February, the first full months after the fee took effect, show the scale of the change even more clearly. India’s H-1B issuances fell from 31,135 to 3,047 across those two months, a 90% collapse. China fell 29% over the same two-month comparison. Every other major sender fell, but nothing like India.

That gap reflects the structure of the H-1B market. India’s dominance is built partly on high-volume offshore hiring by IT services firms, which bring workers from India to the US for assignments with American clients. That is precisely the model that Trump’s $100,000 offshore fee was designed to curb.

This was not a substitution story

To determine whether foreign professionals were pivoting to alternative pathways, we tracked non-immigrant visa categories across employment, education, business, travel, and family migration.

The analysis evaluated B-1/B-2 visitor visas; F-1 student visas; J-1 exchange visas; L-1/L-2 intracompany transferee visas; O-1 extraordinary ability visas; E-1/E-2 treaty trader and investor visas; H-2A and H-2B seasonal worker visas; R-1 religious worker visas; P-class talent visas (P-1 through P-4) for athletes, artists, entertainers, and their dependents; North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) TN visas for eligible Canadian and Mexican professionals working temporarily in the US; and H-4, F-2, and J-2 visas for the spouses and children of certain H, F, and J visa holders.

Across all monitored categories, only a single visa group recorded growth: E-1/E-2 treaty trader and investor visas edged up by 406 (from 22,225 to 22,631). By contrast, H-1B issuances dropped by 60,107.

If skilled workers were circumventing the H-1B surcharge via the O-1 extraordinary ability visa, the data fails to support that hypothesis; O-1 issuances declined 10.5% (from 8,911 to 7,971). Meanwhile, F-1 student visas dropped 44.7% (from 79,660 to 44,027), extending a multi-year contraction in academic vetting.

Other employment categories followed suit: J-1 exchange visas fell 10.8%, L-1/L-2 intracompany transferees dropped 14.6%, and H-4 dependent visas fell 54.8% in tandem with principal holders.

TC DATA LAB

This Was Not a Substitution Story

Every US temporary-visa route, Oct–Feb, FY2025 vs FY2026. If skilled workers were rerouting around the H-1B fee, another category should have risen. Almost none did.

11 of 12tracked categories fell

+1.8%E1/E2 — the only category to grow

−52% to −55%H1B and its dependents (H4), the hardest hit

FY2025 (Oct–Feb) FY2026 — fell FY2026 — rose

Each row is scaled to its own range, so bar length shows the size of that category’s swing, not its rank against the others — B1/B2 alone (2.2m issuances) dwarfs every other route.

In total, non-immigrant visa issuances contracted from 4.54 million to 3.50 million, representing one million fewer legal entries over five months. Notably, seasonal labour diverged sharply: uncapped H-2A agricultural visas rose 9.4%, whereas capped H-2B non-agricultural seasonal visas plummeted 75.6%.

The data confirms that foreign workers did not migrate to alternative visa classes. Instead, legal entry contracted across the board.

Africa, the continent being written out entirely

While African countries were never the dominant force in US immigration, the contraction made it seem worse. India and China together accounted for roughly 82% of H-1B approvals in FY2025.

TC DATA LAB

The Visa Contraction

How US non-immigrant visa issuances moved, month by month and country by country, before and after the $100,000 H-1B fee.

Sep 2025 - the $100,000 H-1B fee takes effect, later extended to Sep 2027

Across the visa categories we tracked, African countries received 168,078 US visas from October 2024 through February 2025. In the same five months of FY2026, that number fell to 84,485, a 50% decline.

Compared with the same period in FY2023, African visa issuances were down 58%.

Nigeria accounted for the biggest fall. From October 2024 through February 2025 (FY2025), Nigerians received 34,643 US visas across the tracked categories. A year later, the number was 4,595, declining by 86.7%.

The collapse was concentrated in B1/B2 business and tourism visas, which fell from 31,089 to 3,251, a 90% drop.

Nigeria had been Africa’s largest source of US visa issuances in FY2023, FY2024, and FY2025. In the first five months of FY2026, it ranked sixth, behind Morocco, South Africa, Egypt, Ghana, and Kenya.

The declines were not limited to Nigeria. Ethiopia’s issuances fell 72.6%, while Egypt’s fell 52.7%. Across Africa, F1 student visas fell 62.5%, from 8,294 to 3,110.

Morocco went the other way. Its B1/B2 issuances rose 60%, from 10,625 to 17,031. No other African country recorded a comparable increase. The issuance data does not explain why, although the clearance of a processing backlog at the Casablanca consulate is one possible explanation.

H-1B petitions have historically represented a small fraction of African migration to the US. Nigeria, the continent's top H-1B beneficiary, recorded 497 issuances in the first five months of FY2025, falling to 199 over the same period in FY2026. (While Nigeria recorded 2,423 total USCIS petition approvals in FY2025, consular issuances reflect physical passport stamps for workers entering from abroad, as opposed to in-country status adjustments).

The broader takeaway is that the migration barrier extends far beyond high-skilled technical visas. The sharpest drops have occurred in visitor and student visas—the primary avenues for African mobility.

The data points to an unambiguous reality: US immigration pathways for African professionals, students, and travellers have not merely shifted to other channels; they have contracted across almost every category simultaneously. While processing rates could fluctuate before FY2026 concludes in September, the current environment demonstrates that regions with lower historical visa volumes are absorbing severe proportional losses as structural barriers escalate.