A founder with receipts,
not a pitch deck.
Since 2013 I've started, shipped, funded, wound down and franchised businesses across publishing, mobility, creative education and document software — backed twice by institutions, and never dependent on a raise to keep building.
The case isn't one idea.
It's thirteen years of executing.
Founding, funding, launching, teaching, franchising — and closing things cleanly when they stopped working. Institutions have already put capital behind me twice, and the ventures kept running either way.
Thirteen years of consecutive operating — tutoring practice, edtech marketplace, photography studio, mobility marketplace, publishing, document software.
Selected by the Tony Elumelu Foundation (Class of 2016) and the ITU Seed Accelerator in Türkiye — one of two African startups in its cohort.
From at least three institutional backers into Wakafire, including TEF capital redeployed after the ChatClass wind-down.
A paid curriculum taken to market, taught at scale, and co-delivered with TECNO at Social Media Week Lagos.
Every business here was funded by client work first and only ever took capital to go faster.
Independent coverage of the ventures across Nigerian media since 2013.
I've been backed before.
Twice, by institutions.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation selected ChatClass into its Class of 2016; when ChatClass failed, the remaining TEF funds were pivoted into Wakafire, making the Foundation an investor in both. Wakafire went on to train over 600 photographers and raise more than $30,000 from at least three institutional backers. Find A Mech was selected into the ITU Seed Accelerator 2022 cohort. If you invest in African founders, back single-market marketplaces, or fund quiet, profitable studios — we should talk.
Ten years of building,
in one table.
Wins and write-offs, both listed. Founders who only show the wins are selling; this is the whole record — sector, stage, and what each one proved.
Daily-reading app and small press
Public-record archive and reading room
600+ photographers trained; institutionally backed
ITU Seed Accelerator, 2022 cohort
Sign, Verify, Invoice, Transfer, Vault
TEF Class of 2016; wound down
UNESCO/GOI Peace nominee, 2013
Every venture here earns its own way.
Ventures is where an idea has grown teeth — it charges money, it serves customers, it keeps the lights on. Everything on this page has crossed that line, or is close enough that it's about to.
One Chapter — read the Bible one chapter at a time, on your own dates.
One Chapter is a subscription reading plan for the Bible. You pick two dates; the plan divides the 1,189 chapters between them and quietly re-balances after every missed day. No streaks, no shame, no gamified guilt — just a plan that flexes around a real life.
It's built for the reader who's tried five apps and given up on all of them. Live today at bible.extrafemi.com. Church and campus partners are welcome; the plan works quietly in the background of a congregation.
The Republic — a searchable archive of Nigerian civic data.
The Republic is a searchable archive of Nigerian civic data — budgets, bills, election results, ministerial promises. Everything the state already publishes, reorganised so a journalist, a researcher or a citizen can actually find it, cite it and compare it across years.
Live at therepublic.extrafemi.com. Open to newsroom partnerships, university licensing and philanthropic funders who care about civic infrastructure over civic performance.
Fleuri — the French tutoring practice that quietly taught Lagos, then birthed ChatClass.
A French-language tutoring and consulting practice based in Lagos, active around 2013. The name plays on the French fleuri — flowered, flourishing. Fleuri taught, translated and consulted in French for Nigerian professionals, students bound for Francophone Africa and Europe, and small businesses trading across the West African border.
Fleuri ended in 2013 and birthed ChatClass that same year — the same team redirecting its cross-border education experience into an online higher-ed marketplace. The practice has since wound down. We keep the record here because Fleuri proved a quiet, durable market — ECOWAS-facing corporates, embassies, NGOs, families preparing for exams — and because the archive is a useful reference for anyone building French-for-business in West Africa today.
ChatClass NG — the ed-tech marketplace selected by the Tony Elumelu Foundation before it pivoted into Wakafire.
ChatClass NG was the actual startup selected by the Tony Elumelu Foundation Class of 2016 — one of Nigeria's earliest online higher-education marketplaces, connecting students across five countries to tutors, prep and admissions support. TechCabal profiled it as an innovative response to Nigeria's higher-education access gap.
When ChatClass failed, the remaining TEF funds were pivoted into Wakafire. In that sense, the Tony Elumelu Foundation was an investor in both ventures — first the ed-tech marketplace, then the photography studio that rose from its ashes.
ChatClass is defunct. The reason it still earns a page: everything Extrafemi later learned about African ed-tech distribution, unit economics and cross-border acquisition started here. Institutional partners exploring this space — the playbook is available.
Wakafire — the Lagos photography studio that rose from ChatClass and trained 600+ mobile photographers.
Wakafire was born in 2016 from the pivot of ChatClass, the Tony Elumelu Foundation-backed ed-tech marketplace that failed that same year. The remaining TEF funds and the team were re-deployed into a photography practice with a point of view: that a phone in trained hands beats a body-and-lens in untrained ones. In that sense, the Tony Elumelu Foundation was an investor in both ChatClass and Wakafire.
In 2018, Wakafire partnered with TECNO Mobile at Social Media Week Lagos to run a Smartphone Photography Masterclass — the first SMW Lagos event shot end-to-end on phones by amateurs, not professionals. That same year the Austrian Embassy in Lagos (Advantage Austria) commissioned Wakafire to photograph the Lagos Architects Forum showcase of twelve Austrian companies, and afterwards the Commercial Counsellor issued a written reference commending the studio as "punctual, diligent" and one they'd recommend for future work. Diplomatic missions rarely put pen to paper for a photography vendor.
Over its run, Wakafire trained 600+ photographers, raised $30,000+ from at least three institutional backers, and served brands including Puma, Hugo Boss, Domino's and TECNO. The studio is now defunct; the curriculum, decks and mobile-first workflow are available to operators building something in the same shape.
Find A Mech — the automotive marketplace built inside ITU Seed's 2022 cohort.
Find A Mech was a marketplace concept for automotive services in markets where price opacity and quality variance are the default. Vetted workshops, upfront estimates and reviews you could trust. One of only two African startups — alongside Nigeria's MyStash — accepted into the ITU Seed Accelerator in Türkiye, which also served as the TRNC's Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Incubation programme. Listed publicly on the ITU Seed Cohort 2022 roster.
Reviews App — the FlutterFlow prototype for capturing customer reviews on any surface.
Reviews App was a lightweight reviews collector built in FlutterFlow — a working prototype for capturing, moderating and displaying customer reviews on any small-business surface. It was the fastest way to prove the flow end-to-end without committing to a full custom build.
The prototype is now defunct as a standalone product; the mechanics live on as a reference implementation. The build file, screen designs and moderation logic are available to teams evaluating FlutterFlow for review-collection or light SMB tooling.
Tools we built,
each with a home of its own.
Small, focused utilities we use every day at the studio — now open to anyone. Each one lives at its own address and does one thing well.
Sign
Send, sign and countersign documents. No accounts required for signers.
Signature
Create a handwritten-quality signature you can drop into anything.
Verify
Confirm a document was signed with Extrafemi — audit trail included.
Invoice
Clean invoices for small studios and freelancers. Send, track, get paid.
Transfer
Send large files without an account. Expires when the job is done.
Vault
A private locker for the documents that matter most.
Brands the ventures
have shot, shipped and served.
From Puma and Hugo Boss to Domino's, Tecno and the Bethesda Child Support Foundation — the ventures show up wherever the work is.
Selected recognition,
across ventures and years.
Awards, accelerators, cohorts, features — the moments external institutions put their name behind a venture.
The French tutoring practice Fleuri wound down and the same team launched ChatClass NG — one of Nigeria's earliest online higher-education marketplaces.
ChatClass was selected into the Tony Elumelu Foundation Class of 2016. When the marketplace failed, the remaining TEF funds were pivoted into Wakafire, making the Foundation an investor in both ventures.
Wakafire co-led a Smartphone Photography Masterclass with TECNO Mobile at Social Media Week Lagos (Feb 27, 2018, Landmark Towers) — and became the first SMW Lagos event shot end-to-end on phones by amateurs, not professionals.
The now-defunct Fleuri Consults was nominated for the Youth Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition — an international contest by GOI Peace Foundation, Stiftung Entrepreneurship Berlin, and UNESCO — with the award ceremony held at Germany's largest entrepreneurship event in Berlin.
One of only two African startups accepted into the ITU Seed Accelerator in Türkiye — which also served as the TRNC's Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Incubation programme.
I ship, then I raise
Every venture here went live before it asked anyone for money — built and funded out of client work. Capital accelerates something already selling; it has never been the condition for starting.
Institutions have already underwritten me
The Tony Elumelu Foundation backed ChatClass and let the funds follow me into Wakafire. The ITU Seed Accelerator selected Find A Mech as one of two African startups in its cohort. Two independent diligence processes, two yeses.
I know how to kill a thing
Fleuri and ChatClass were wound down deliberately, and the remaining capital was redeployed rather than burned. Discipline on the way out is the part most decks leave off.
Track record, revenue and cohort detail, references from past backers — shared privately on request. Ask and I'll send the deck and open a data room.
Three rules,
quietly enforced.
Charge from day one
A venture proves itself with money in the door. Free tiers are a lab thing; ventures ask for the sale.
Own the customer
Direct relationships, direct bookings, direct email. No middleman platform gets to change the terms.
Small on purpose
Every venture is sized to the work it does. Growth is welcome; scale for its own sake is not.
"A hobby is a hope. A venture is an invoice."
Want to work with one of the ventures?
Bookings, partnerships, or a note about a venture that isn't listed yet — the inbox is open.