The Chief Executive Officer of Mainstack, Ayobami Oyaleke, has called for a shift in Nigeria’s startup funding debate from investment volumes to revenue generation, customer retention and long-term business sustainability.
Oyaleke said the success of Nigeria’s startup ecosystem should be measured by the ability of businesses to generate consistent revenue, manage risks and grow sustainably, rather than the amount of capital raised or the number of funding announcements.

He argued that rising investment figures do not necessarily indicate a healthy ecosystem, just as declining funding does not automatically mean that the sector is failing.
“We should ask whether companies can serve customers, earn revenue, manage risk, and grow beyond the next round,” he said.

The Mainstack chief executive’s position comes amid mixed trends in African technology funding, with overall investment recovering in 2025 while Nigerian startups recorded a decline in equity financing.
According to Partech’s 2025 African tech funding report, technology companies across the continent raised $4.1 billion during the year, representing a 25 per cent increase from 2024. The number of deals also rose by seven per cent.
However, much of the increase came from debt financing and larger investment deals, while Nigeria raised $412 million in equity funding across 83 deals.

The figure represented a 21 per cent decline in equity funding value and a 19 per cent drop in deal count compared with the previous year.
Oyaleke said the figures showed the need to examine funding trends beyond aggregate numbers to understand which companies and stages of development were attracting investment.
“A continent-wide rebound and a tougher fundraising market for Nigerian startups can both be true. We have to look beneath the aggregate to understand which companies and stages are actually getting capital,” he said.
Despite the decline, Nigeria remained Africa’s second-largest market by equity deal count in 2025 and the continent’s largest early-stage market over the 2021–2025 period, according to Partech.
However, access to capital remains uneven, particularly for businesses at the early stages of development.

TechCabal Insights’ first-half 2026 recap showed that debt accounted for 41 per cent of African startup funding during the period, while early-stage startups attracted $9 million, down from $25 million in the corresponding period of the previous year.
Oyaleke said founders seeking investment must provide credible evidence of demand, including paying customers, repeat usage, revenue performance and the cost of delivering their products or services.
“Sign-ups are not the same as recurring use. Transaction volume is not the same as revenue. An investor should be able to see who pays, why customers return, what it costs to serve them, and how new capital changes the business,” he said.
Drawing from Mainstack’s fundraising experience, Oyaleke noted that demonstrating growth alone does not guarantee investment, particularly when founders have yet to establish that their business models can deliver sustainable returns.
Mainstack, which provides tools for creators and online businesses, initially focused on helping users receive and convert cross-border payments.

The company subsequently expanded its offerings to include online storefronts, digital products, bookings, payments, communities and customer follow-up tools as the needs of its customers evolved.
Its version 4 launch in 2026 brought more of these capabilities together to address the operational demands of creators and online entrepreneurs.
Oyaleke said the experience reinforced the importance of adapting products to customer needs rather than building around prevailing investor preferences.
“Capital matters, but it cannot do the work of proving demand for you. The product has to keep changing as you learn from customers, not simply because an investor trend has changed,” he said.
He also called for a more cautious approach to debt financing, which is playing a growing role in Africa’s startup funding landscape.

According to him, debt can help businesses finance working capital and acquire assets without diluting ownership, particularly where revenue is predictable and funds have a clearly defined purpose.
However, he warned that borrowing could expose young companies to financial pressure when revenue is unstable, repayment obligations are denominated in a different currency from earnings, or loans are used to sustain business models that have yet to demonstrate viability.

“A broader capital toolkit is useful, but the instrument has to match the business. Founders should understand the repayment risk as clearly as the growth opportunity,” he said.
Beyond funding instruments, Oyaleke urged investors to strengthen support for early-stage businesses by making their investment processes more consistent, sharing due diligence where appropriate and providing constructive feedback to founders whose applications are unsuccessful.
He warned that waiting until startups had achieved significant scale before investing could weaken the pipeline of emerging businesses.
He also identified regulatory clarity, compliance costs, shared infrastructure and cross-border transaction constraints as issues requiring attention to improve the operating environment for Nigerian startups.
The Central Bank of Nigeria’s 2026 fintech report, he noted, recognises the country’s strength in real-time payments while highlighting areas where improvements could support the sector.
Oyaleke said predictable regulations would help businesses plan more effectively, reduce avoidable costs and build customer confidence.
“Good regulation should make misconduct costly without making responsible experimentation impossible. That balance helps customers, companies, and investors make longer-term decisions,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said opportunities for investment extended beyond financial technology into sectors such as e-commerce, logistics and the creator economy.
Partech’s 2025 data showed that e-commerce accounted for 20 per cent of Nigerian equity funding, while fintech represented 56 per cent.
According to Oyaleke, businesses operating at the intersection of these sectors, including commerce platforms with embedded payments, creator businesses offering subscriptions and logistics services supported by working-capital solutions, could create opportunities for sustainable growth.
“The label matters less than the underlying economics. A healthy ecosystem is one where capital matches a company’s stage and cash flows, and where customers—not pitch decks—make the case for expansion,” he said.
“Nigeria does not have to choose between ambition and discipline. We need capital that funds ambition, and the discipline to prove what that capital can build.”
He said progress in Nigeria’s startup ecosystem should ultimately be assessed by whether emerging businesses receive fair consideration from investors, whether funding matches their operational needs and whether the companies can translate investment into lasting economic value.