PiggyVest
PiggyVest is a Nigerian financial technology company that helps consumers save and invest through automated, goal-based products. Founded in 2016 as Piggybank.ng by Somto Ifezue, Odunayo Eweniyi and Joshua Chibueze, it is widely cited as Africa’s largest dedicated consumer savings platform by users.1
History
The idea grew out of Nigeria’s informal kolo / ajo savings culture. After a New Year 2016 tweet about digitising wooden piggy banks, the founders—already operators of HR startup PushCV—shipped an MVP and launched with Paystack’s public beta. Early growth was Twitter-driven and capital-light. A $1.1 million seed round in 2018 (LeadPath Capital, Village Capital, Ventures Platform) funded product depth and a path to a microfinance-bank licence via an affiliate. The company rebranded to PiggyVest in 2019 to reflect investing alongside locked savings.2
Founders
Somto Ifezue is co-founder and chief executive officer, and a prominent public voice for West African consumer fintech.
Odunayo Eweniyi is co-founder and long-time chief operating officer, often the most visible woman founder in Nigerian consumer finance.
Joshua Chibueze is co-founder, contributing product and marketing from the Piggybank.ng launch through the PiggyVest era.
Model
PiggyVest is a wealth and savings platform rather than a full licensed neobank current-account brand. Funds and investments are delivered through regulated Nigerian partners and an affiliated microfinance bank (historically Golden MFB). The product thesis is behavioural: make it easy to save and costly or inconvenient to withdraw impulsively—closer to a digital esusu than a spend-first wallet such as OPay.
Products
Products include automated and locked savings (Flex, Target, Safelock-style pots), mutual-fund and treasury-bill investing, kids’ savings (PiggyVest Kids), and budgeting tools such as Salary Manager. An AI layer has been described as recommending how much to save from linked accounts.
Reception
Commentators credit PiggyVest with changing how young Nigerians save after years of negligible bank deposit rates and high fees. Reported user counts have ranged from about five million (Forbes Africa, 2025) to over seven million in later case studies. It is a reference consumer-fintech brand alongside payments giants rather than a card-first USD wallet.
External links
References
- PiggyVest is a Nigerian savings and investment platform founded as Piggybank.ng in 2016. https://www.piggyvest.com/
- The company raised a $1.1 million seed round in 2018 and rebranded from Piggybank.ng to PiggyVest in 2019. https://todayafrica.co/inside-piggyvests-journey/
Frequently asked questions
- What is PiggyVest?
- PiggyVest is a Nigerian savings and investment platform that digitised goal-based saving for millions of consumers.
- When was PiggyVest founded?
- PiggyVest was founded in 2016 (as Piggybank.ng).
- Where is PiggyVest headquartered?
- PiggyVest is headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria.
- Who founded PiggyVest?
- PiggyVest was founded by Somto Ifezue, Odunayo Eweniyi, Joshua Chibueze.
- What type of company is PiggyVest?
- PiggyVest is described as Private in its neobank.wiki profile.
- What is the official PiggyVest website?
- The official website for PiggyVest is https://www.piggyvest.com/.
See also
- Accrue — Accrue is a Ghana- and Nigeria-rooted fintech that moves money across Africa and the US using a stablecoin agent network.
- Airwallex — Airwallex is an Australian-founded business fintech for global accounts, payments and spend management.
- Alex Johnson — Alex Johnson is the founder of Fintech Takes, a widely read fintech newsletter and podcast; he is active on X as @AlexH_Johnson.
- Alexandre Prot — Alexandre Prot is co-founder and CEO of Qonto, the Paris-based European business neobank.
- Ali Niknam — Ali Niknam is founder and CEO of Bunq, the Amsterdam-based licensed Dutch neobank.