Oluwatomi Ayorinde is a visionary entrepreneur shaping how the continent interacts with money both at home and abroad.
At under 40, Ayorinde’s journey spans agency banking innovations, exits to major players, and now a bold new chapter focused on travel finance, a testament to his ability to solve real-world problems with technology.
As the founder and CEO of Timon, a travel-focused fintech launched in 2025, Ayorinde is redefining the travel experience for Africans and global explorers alike.
Timon’s mission is simple but powerful: eliminate the “payment anxiety” that many Africans face when they travel abroad or receive international payments.
The platform offers physical and virtual multi-currency travel cards that work seamlessly worldwide, integrate with Apple Pay and Google Pay, and support transfers across markets. Early adoption and product traction reflect a founder who knows how to build solutions that move people.
Before Timon, Ayorinde made his mark with CrowdForce, a Y-Combinator-backed fintech he co-founded in 2018. CrowdForce grew into one of Africa’s most innovative agency banking platforms, turning local businesses into mobile bank branches and dramatically expanding financial inclusion in underserved Nigerian communities.
Its flagship product, PayForce, a merchant payments and banking suite, was acquired by FairMoney in 2023 in a deal believed to be worth between $15 million and $20 million, after which Ayorinde led the new PayForce by FairMoney unit.
Following the acquisition, Ayorinde served as chief executive officer of PayForce by FairMoney, overseeing the integration and expansion of the merchant banking solution within FairMoney’s broader financial ecosystem.
Ayorinde’s path into fintech began after graduating from Covenant University in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems.
He started his career as Head of Retail Banking Development at AppZone Group before moving into enterprise systems consulting at SAP, where he honed his technical and business skills on global software projects.
Early entrepreneurial instincts were evident even earlier: in 2006 he co-founded VELImage International, a technology solutions company.
What sets Ayorinde apart is not just his track record of founding and exiting companies, but his ability to blend personal experience with impactful innovation.
The idea for Timon, for example, emerged from a frustrating travel experience years earlier when his bank card failed abroad, a micro-moment that later fuelled a fintech designed to remove that friction for millions of travelers.
Across every chapter, Ayorinde’s work has been grounded in inclusion, real-world utility, and user trust: from expanding financial access for MSMEs and underserved Nigerians to ensuring that Africans can spend confidently on the global stage.
As he continues to build and scale Timon, he stands as a major contributor to Africa’s evolving fintech ecosystem, an entrepreneur whose vision, resilience, and ingenuity are shaping the future of digital finance.
Image Credit: Startup Researcher
