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Two weeks after she graduated with a first-class degree in computer engineering, Odunayo Eweniyi joined a startup instead of taking a conventional job. That choice set off a career that produced a recruitment website, one of Nigeria’s biggest savings platforms and an investment fund for women founders. This Odunayo Eweniyi biography follows a co-founder who built PiggyVest into a household name, helped start FirstCheck Africa to close the funding gap for women, and stood out as a leading voice for gender equality in Nigeria. It shows how an engineer with an operations mindset turns a simple idea into a large business. This article covers her education, career and achievements.
Who Is Odunayo Eweniyi?
Odunayo Eweniyi is a Nigerian business executive, technology entrepreneur and activist. She is the co-founder and Chief Operations Officer of PiggyVest, Nigeria’s largest digital savings and investment platform. She is also the co-founder and a general partner of FirstCheck Africa, a female-led angel fund that backs women founders, and a co-founder of the Feminist Coalition, a collective of young Nigerian feminists. Eweniyisits on the board of Village Capital, which supports early-stage entrepreneurs who focus on social impact.
Early Life and Education
Eweniyi grew up in a family of university professors, an environment that placed a high value on education. She studied at Covenant University in Nigeria from 2008 to 2013 and earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Computer Engineering. Eweniyi graduated at the top of her class with first class honours and received the award for the best graduating student in Computer Engineering.
She continued her education while building her companies. In 2017 and 2018, she earned a full-stack web development certification from freeCodeCamp. She later completed a certification in alternative investments through Harvard Business School Online in 2020. She also earned a Cisco networking certification earlier in her career.
In 2020, she began a master’s degree in finance, specialising in banking, at SOAS University of London.
Her mix of engineering and finance explains her career. She understands how to build technology, and she studied how money works, which is the combination a savings and investment company needs.
First Steps in the Startup World
Eweniyi began working in 2013 as a content and social media manager at a small entertainment company. Soon after graduating, she joined her future co-founders at their technology startup. After about six months, they launched PushCV together in 2014, an online platform for recruitment and CV writing.
At PushCV, she took on a broad operations role covering marketing, sales, product management and business development. The job gave her experience in every part of a young business. In 2015, she also wrote for the Nigerian culture website Zikoko and worked as an editor at the technology publication Techpoint Africa, which sharpened her writing and her view of the startup scene.
Founding PiggyVest
In January 2016, two years after PushCV began, Eweniyi co-founded PiggyBank.ng, later renamed PiggyVest, with Somtochukwu Ifezue and Joshua Chibueze. The idea was to digitise a familiar habit. Many Nigerians save by dropping cash into a wooden box known as a kolo, and the co-founders wanted to give them a safer, more disciplined way to do the same thing on their phones.
PiggyVest started with an automated savings product and expanded into a platform offering savings plans, investments and other financial tools. The company raised $1.1 million in seed funding and now serves millions of users. It has become one of Nigeria’s leading digital savings platforms.
Eweniyi serves as the company’s Chief Operating Officer (COO). She oversees daily operations and helps keep the platform running smoothly for its large customer base.
Her Operating Style
Eweniyi has described herself as “structured,” a quality that suits her role as COO. In the savings business, trust is essential. Customers need confidence that their money is safe and accessible.
Her focus on planning, processes and execution helped PiggyVest overcome early resource constraints. It also helped the company address public doubts about whether Nigerians would trust a digital savings platform.
Co-Founding FirstCheck Africa
In January 2021, Eweniyi and Eloho Omame co-founded FirstCheck Africa, a pre-seed and seed investment fund that backs startups with at least one female co-founder. The fund responds to a persistent gap. Women found fewer investors and received less funding than men, even when their businesses performed well.
FirstCheck Africa provides early-stage funding and mentorship to women founders. It aims to give them a first institutional investor who believes in their potential.
As a general partner, Eweniyi uses her operating experience to assess startups and help founders grow their businesses.
Activism and the Feminist Coalition
Eweniyi also works outside business. In 2020, she co-founded the Feminist Coalition, a group of young Nigerian feminists who advance women’s equality in education, financial independence and representation in public office. The group became widely known in Nigeria during a year of national protest and civic action.
Her activism and her business work point in the same direction. Financial independence for women connects directly to PiggyVest’s savings tools and to FirstCheck Africa’s funding for women founders.
Awards and Recognition
Eweniyi’s recognition spans business and civic leadership. TIME named her to its TIME100 Next list in 2021, Bloomberg included her in its Bloomberg 50 list in 2020, and Forbes Africa placed her on its 30 Under 30 list in 2019 and among its new wealth creators the same year. In March 2022, she won the Forbes Woman Africa Technology and Innovation Award. She has also received a Future Awards Africa honour and appeared on the World Women in Fintech Power list.
Why Odunayo Eweniyi Draws Attention
Odunayo Eweniyi earned a first-class engineering degree but chose entrepreneurship over a conventional career. She became an operations leader at one of Nigeria’s largest digital savings platforms and an investor supporting women founders.
Readers searching for an Odunayo Eweniyi biography want to understand how she moved from engineering into fintech and venture investing. Her journey also offers lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs.
What Her Journey Teaches
Three lessons stand out. First, start building early. Eweniyi joined a startup two weeks after graduating and learned every function, which prepared her to run operations later. Second, digitise what people already trust. PiggyVest took the familiar kolo and made it safer and smarter, so customers did not have to learn a new habit. Third, use success to open doors for others. FirstCheck Africa turns her experience of building a company into funding and mentorship for women who face the same barriers she saw.
