LAGOS While much of Africa’s fintech revolution has focused on helping consumers send and receive money more easily, Nigerian entrepreneur Yele Oyekola has taken a different path solving the financial management challenges businesses face after payments are made.
As founder and Chief Executive Officer of Duplo, Oyekola has built a financial operations platform designed to automate business payments, invoice approvals, reconciliations, and cash management. The company has now secured more than $13 million in funding, positioning it as one of Africa’s fastest-growing business finance technology startups
Behind every successful business lies a finance department responsible for tracking invoices, processing supplier payments, approving expenses, and ensuring every transaction is accurately recorded.
Across Africa, however, many businesses still rely on spreadsheets, manual paperwork, and disconnected financial systems. These outdated processes often result in delayed payments, reconciliation errors, duplicated transactions, and poor visibility into company finances.
Recognizing this challenge, Oyekola launched Duplo in 2022 to provide businesses with a centralized platform capable of simplifying financial operations while improving efficiency and accountability.
The company’s software enables organizations to automate payment approvals, reconcile transactions automatically, manage supplier payments, and monitor cash flow from a single dashboard.
Oyekola’s journey into entrepreneurship was anything but conventional.After studying finance and economics, he began his professional career as a financial analyst before moving into hedge fund management. Although the role provided technical expertise, he soon realized that simply analyzing financial data was not fulfilling enough.
Instead, he wanted to tackle larger economic challenges affecting businesses across Africa.
His search for greater impact eventually led him to the United Nations, where he worked on public policy initiatives aimed at improving development across African countries.
That experience exposed him to the structural barriers preventing many African businesses from reaching their full potential.
Rather than remaining on the policy side, Oyekola decided he wanted to build practical solutions capable of addressing these problems directly.
His entrepreneurial journey did not begin with Duplo. While working in Kenya, Oyekola launched a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) startup after identifying opportunities within the country’s consumer finance market . The venture ultimately failed.
Rather than discouraging him, the experience taught valuable lessons about product development, customer acquisition, market realities, and execution knowledge that would later become instrumental in building Duplo
Unlike consumer financial applications that typically serve millions of users in similar ways, enterprise finance software presents a far greater challenge.
Every business operates differently.Some organizations require multiple approval levels before invoices can be paid. Others work with several banks across different countries or manage hundreds of supplier transactions every week.
Creating software flexible enough to accommodate these differences while remaining easy to use became one of Duplo’s biggest technical challenges.
According to Oyekola, the company spent years refining its platform to strike the right balance between functionality and simplicity.
The result is a system capable of supporting complex financial operations without overwhelming finance teams. Developing the technology was only part of the challenge.
Convincing companies to entrust critical financial operations to a young startup proved equally demanding.
Financial systems handle payroll, supplier payments, taxes, and large volumes of corporate funds. Businesses are naturally cautious about handing such responsibilities to unfamiliar technology providers.
To overcome these concerns, Duplo focused heavily on building credibility through reliable service, strong security measures, and consistent customer support.
Over time, the company earned the confidence of medium-sized businesses and large enterprises looking to replace inefficient manual financial processes.
Today, organizations across multiple industries use Duplo to automate workflows, monitor expenditures, and gain real-time visibility into company financeThe opportunity Duplo is pursuing is significant.
Manual invoicing and fragmented financial processes continue to cost African businesses billions annually through payment disputes, accounting errors, delayed reconciliations, and poor cash management.
Industry estimates suggest these inefficiencies contribute substantially to tax leakages and financial losses each year, highlighting the enormous demand for automation across the continent’s business sector.
By digitizing these processes, Duplo aims to reduce operational costs while enabling finance teams to focus on strategic decision-making instead of repetitive administrative work.
Investor confidence in Duplo’s vision has remained strong despite a more cautious venture capital environment.
Since its launch, the company has raised over $13 million to expand its technology platform and grow its presence across Africa.
Although startup funding has become increasingly competitive—particularly as artificial intelligence attracts global investment—Duplo has continued to secure backing by addressing a clear business need with measurable value.
Oyekola acknowledges that African startups often face additional hurdles when seeking international investment because many foreign investors remain unfamiliar with the continent’s regulatory environments, banking systems, and financial infrastructure.
Despite these challenges, Duplo has continued to attract support by demonstrating consistent growth and a scalable business model.
The company recently expanded into South Africa, marking an important milestone in its continental growth strategy.
According to Oyekola, the move confirmed that businesses across African markets face remarkably similar operational challenges regardless of location.
From Lagos to Johannesburg, companies struggle with fragmented financial systems, manual payment approvals, and limited visibility into cash flow.
This shared experience strengthens Duplo’s ambition to become Africa’s preferred financial operations platform. Looking ahead, Oyekola believes artificial intelligence will redefine business finance.
Rather than replacing finance professionals, AI will automate repetitive tasks such as invoice processing, payment verification, duplicate transaction detection, and financial reconciliation.
By eliminating routine administrative work, finance teams will be able to devote more time to planning, forecasting, and strategic decision-making.
Duplo is already working toward integrating more intelligent automation into its platform as part of its long-term product roadmap.
For Oyekola, the vision extends beyond software.He wants Duplo to become the digital infrastructure that businesses across Africa rely on to invoice customers, manage supplier payments, reconcile accounts, automate approvals, and oversee every aspect of financial operations from a single platform.
If successful, the company could help modernize how African enterprises manage money while improving efficiency, transparency, and financial accountability across the continent.
With fresh capital, expanding operations, and growing demand for enterprise financial technology, Duplo appears well positioned to play a significant role in shaping the future of business finance in Africa.
