Vision
I built LoftySMS to over 100,000 customers, delivering nearly a billion messages across Africa. Then I built Watu — payment infrastructure that processed over ₦3 trillion, with 25,000+ merchants, 100,000+ app installs, and 1,000+ POS terminals deployed across Nigeria.
I applied for an MFB license. And before I could get it over the line, I watched everything I built collapse within a space of a month.
I didn't stop building. I started Staq.
Simplify everything to a click
Africa doesn't need more software. It needs software that actually works here — with our infrastructure, our regulations, our realities.
Every industry I've entered has the same pattern: powerful tools exist, but they're either inaccessible, overcomplicated, or designed without African realities in mind. Ten-step processes that should be one click. Enterprise software priced for Fortune 500 companies. Systems that assume you'll always be online.
Staq's mission is to enter these industries and reduce complexity to a click. We absorb the hard parts — compliance, infrastructure, integration — so our users don't have to.
Our platforms
Four platforms across four verticals. Each one exists because I saw the problem firsthand.
The infrastructure gap
Africa has 900+ licensed microfinance banks in Nigeria alone. Most run on Excel spreadsheets or legacy systems that cost $500K+ to implement. Retail traders across the continent can't access the same algorithmic tools institutions use. Small businesses need digital services — airtime, data, bill payments — but can't build the provider integrations themselves.
These aren't technology problems. They're access problems. The technology exists — it's just locked behind complexity, cost, and infrastructure assumptions that don't hold in our markets.
Staq is the unlock. We build the infrastructure layer so that a microfinance bank can deploy in 2 weeks instead of 12 months. So that a trader can automate a strategy by describing it in plain English. So that a business can offer digital services through a single API.
What building and breaking taught me
You can't architect your way to product-market fit. Build something people want first, then make it scale.
Compliance isn't a checkbox — it's the foundation. I watched a company processing trillions collapse because the regulatory foundation wasn't solid. In Africa, you don't build first and get licensed later. VaultCoreOS exists because of that lesson.
Building for Africa isn't about adapting global products. It's about solving problems that only exist here — offline-first architecture because connectivity isn't guaranteed, mobile money integration because that's how people transact, regulatory compliance baked in because that's how you survive.
And simplicity is the hardest thing to build. Anyone can build something complex. The real challenge is making complex things feel effortless.
Where we're going
Staq isn't defined by the industries we're in. We're defined by the pattern we follow: find an industry where complexity is the barrier, then remove it.
Today it's trading, banking, content, and digital services. Tomorrow it could be insurance, logistics, education — any vertical where expertise is gatekept, processes are broken, and simplicity is overdue.
Every product we build compounds. The infrastructure we create for one platform informs the next. The compliance frameworks, the offline-first patterns, the multi-tenant architecture — these are capabilities that accelerate everything that comes after.
“I'm not building Staq because I think I'll get it right this time. I'm building it because I know what getting it wrong looks like — and that makes all the difference.”
Olumide Omotoso, Founder, The Staq Technologies Ltd
Let's build togetherReady to simplify?
Whether you're looking to build with us, partner, or join our team — we'd love to hear from you.