Adetunji ‘TeeJay’ Opayele, the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Nigerian retail automation startup Bumpa, passed away on March 5, 2025, after being involved in a car accident.
Opayele, a law graduate from Obafemi Awolowo University, played a crucial role in the founding of Bumpa in 2020 alongside co-founder Kelvin Umechukwu. Both co-founders met as students at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) and would go on to build a number of businesses together.
“This is honestly one of the most distressing things I’ve ever been through, and I imagine it’s the same for all of us who were close to Teejay,” Umechukwu said in a statement seen by Techpoint Africa. “He wasn’t just a cofounder to me; he was my friend, my brother, my fight partner, and a brilliant engineer. Teejay was family to me, and this is honestly one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to deal with in life.”
The startup, which focuses on automating retail operations for small businesses, last raised $4 million in a seed round led by Base10 Partners in 2022.
That same year, it announced an integration with Meta that would allow merchants to manage their direct messages (DMs) from Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp directly on Bumpa without having to go to any of the Meta platforms. Bumpa also completed the acquisition of Fyne, a beauty marketplace, in 2023 for an undisclosed amount, a move that it said would facilitate its entry into “new markets,” while it also acquired PaperCloud in 2025.
Bumpa now employs 40 individuals and has processed over 160 billion for the 60,000 onboarded SMEs.
“Tunji loved life and lived it to the fullest. We had the privilege of working closely with him from day 0 at Bumpa, and his tenacity always stood out. He was deeply committed to his vision, yet he also had a curiosity for life beyond work—always exploring new ideas and passions. His energy and determination were truly inspiring, and he will be deeply missed,” Opeyemi Awoyemi, Partner at Fast-Forward Fund, a Bumpa investor, said.
Before his work with Bumpa, Opayele had an extensive career in software development, holding roles in both Nigeria and the United States, including positions with Nigerian financial services provider E-Settlement and web hosting company HostCabal, which he founded.
Opayele’s death is a huge blow to the four-year-old startup where he led its technology efforts. In honour of his legacy, the startup has said it will build an AI assistant named Teejay “that will always be on Bumpa, providing business insights and solving problems just like he did.”
“Though his presence will be missed, we commit to keeping Teejay’s legacy alive by ensuring that the Bumpa app is fully functional and we continue to meet your business needs with it,” Umemchukwu said in an email to customers on Wednesday.
