Bujeti — Startup Profile

Finance control centre for African businesses — corporate cards, spend management, and payments

HQ: Lagos, Nigeria | Founded: 2021 | Employees: 29 | Stage: Seed | Website: https://bujeti.com

About

Bujeti is an all-in-one corporate card and expense management platform for African businesses. The platform enables companies to issue virtual and physical corporate cards to employees with configurable spending limits, restrictions, and approval workflows. Features include budgeting, receipt tracking, accounts payable/receivable automation, payroll processing, multi-currency operations (NGN, KES, USD), and integrations with accounting software (QuickBooks, Xero). Bujeti targets traditional African businesses in healthcare, logistics, agriculture, and construction that have been underserved by fintech. Founded in 2021 by Achille Arouko (CEO) and Samy Chiba (COO). Arouko was tech lead of Paystack's commerce, subscriptions and invoices team before founding Bujeti. Chiba previously worked at Ariane Group (Ariane Space) and was CEO of SmartSoft Europe. The startup pivoted from a B2C personal finance/remittances app to B2B after discovering stronger product-market fit with businesses. YC W23. Raised $2M seed round led by Y Combinator with participation from Entrée Capital, Voltron Capital, Unpopular VC, Kima Ventures, Dropbox co-founder Arash Ferdowsi, Alan Rutledge, Tristan Walker (Heirloom VC), and Mono CEO Abdul Hassan. ~$1M estimated ARR with 29+ employees. HQ in Lagos, Nigeria with additional presence in Paris, France.

The Take

Bujeti is well-positioned as the African counterpart to Brex/Ramp in the corporate spend space, but with a focus on traditional industries (healthcare, logistics, agriculture, construction) that are underserved by fintech. Founding team is strong: Achille built payments infrastructure at Paystack (acquired by Stripe), and Samy brings operational and compliance expertise from Ariane Space. The $2M seed from YC and quality angels validates the thesis. Revenue already at ~$1M. Key challenge: the African corporate card market has thin margins, and competitors like Fleek, Brass, and others are also targeting this space.

Key People

Achille Arouko
Samy Chiba

Key Competitors

Timeline Highlights

2026-05: Launched payroll module to drive financial control for African businesses.
2026-02: Launched tax management solution for Nigerian businesses amid tax reform wave.
2024-2025: Scaled to 29+ employees, $1M ARR. Expanded to support KES and multi-currency. Added payroll and bulk payments features.
2023-12: Raised $2M seed round led by Y Combinator with Arash Ferdowsi (Dropbox), Entrée Capital, Voltron Capital, and others.
2023-01: Accepted into Y Combinator Winter 2023 batch. Both founders moved to San Francisco for the program.
2022-04: Pivoted from B2C to B2B after discovering stronger demand from businesses. Launched corporate cards and expense management platform.
2021: Bujeti founded by Achille Arouko and Samy Chiba. Originally a B2C personal finance and remittances app for the African diaspora.

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