Chimoney to be acquired by CapitalSage weeks after shutdown

Chi Technologies Inc., the parent company of cross-border payments startup Chimoney, has signed an agreement to be acquired by CapitalSage Vantage Limited, just four weeks after Chimoney announced plans to shut down due to a lack of funding.

Chimoney founder Uchi Uchibeke disclosed the agreement in a post on X on Monday. If completed, the acquisition will give CapitalSage its first payments business in Canada.

The startup announced its wind-down in May after struggling to scale customer acquisition and distribution. Although Chimoney built infrastructure that allowed businesses to send payments in 41 currencies across Africa, North America and Latin America, revenue growth stalled.

At the time, Uchibeke said the company had raised less than $1 million and could no longer sustain operations independently. Chimoney subsequently stopped processing new transactions and began refunding customer balances.

“When I announced the wind-down in May, I told the truth about what went wrong,” Uchibeke wrote. “The coverage reached over a dozen publications. Everyone used my framing. Within days, CapitalSage reached out. The wind-down became the pitch.”

The acquisition would see Chimoney’s investors repaid in full, according to Uchibeke. Employees are also expected to receive payouts from the proceeds of the transaction.

Uchibeke said he will remain involved for six months after the acquisition to support the transition process.

The transaction will close in phases because of regulatory requirements under Canada’s Retail Payment Activities Act. The phased structure allows regulators to review and approve ownership changes before the deal is fully completed.

When announcing the shutdown, Uchibeke said Chi Technologies would remain active and retain its Money Services Business registration and Payment Service Provider licence.

“I preserved the PSP and MSB. Many people told me to let them lapse. Those licenses are why this deal happened,” he said.

For CapitalSage Holdings, the deal provides a faster route into Canada’s payments market. The company already operates across Nigeria, Kenya, The Gambia, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

Following the acquisition, Uchibeke said he will focus on APort, an artificial intelligence product that operates independently of Chimoney.

Reflecting on the deal, he said the acquisition was never part of the original shutdown strategy.

“I did not plan for this,” he wrote. “I wrote the wind-down post because it was the right thing to do. The integrity of that process is what brought CapitalSage to the table.”