The news
- Temitope Ekundayo, GetEquity COO was reportedly detained over unpaid funds to a startup called Peppa.
- GetEquity said the police detention was an intimidation tactic by the startup.
- CEO, Jude Dike said that GetEquity had entered a partnership with Peppa to stagger payments.
Per GetEquity's website, it is a private marketplace for investors and companies to trade digital securities and assets privately and securely.
A source told TechCabal that Peppa, a startup that offers escrow services to online shoppers, "approached GetEquity to help us collect money from angel investors as part of a small family and friend round."
"As our company had completed a Know Your Customer (KYC) process, our agreement stated that we could collect the money that had been raised whenever we were ready, and it would be wired to us,” the source said.
Peppa raised $43,000 with GetEquity and involved the police when it could not receive the funds from the investment company.
Other sources told the publication that the police detained Ekundayo, GetEquity’s COO for two days as Peppa filed a police complaint.
While Ekundayo has been released, GetEquity has plans to take legal action over his detention
GetEquity notes that the detention of its COO, Ekundayo, was an intimidation tactic, as it had already paid $29,000 to Peppa.
Techpoint Africa reached out to GetEquity's CEO, but there hasn't been a response at the time of this publication.
It attributed the reason for the delay in payment to the volatility of foreign exchange. The company's CEO, Jude Dike explained that the company receives investments in various currencies and has to pay the companies in dollars.
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“You had situations where if the investor makes a payment today, it takes two days for the transaction to settle, and the price of the US Dollar may have changed by as much as N200 in those two days.”
GetEquity claimed it has paid the outstanding owed to Peppa.
As more controversies continue to trail African startups, some investors have said that it could hurt funding efforts on the continent.
