Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Nigerian retail automation startup Bumpa, Adetunji ‘TeeJay’ Opayele also known as TeeJay, passed away on March 5, 2025, after being involved in a ghastly car accident in Lagos.
Opayele, a law graduate from Obafemi Awolowo University, played an important 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 sincerely one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to deal with in life.”
The new venture, 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 alignment 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.
Opeyemi Awoyemi, Partner at Fast-Forward Fund, a Bumpa investor, said, “Tunji loved life and lived it to the fullest. We had the luxe 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, commitment and willpower were truly inspiring, and he will be deeply missed."
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,” Umechukwu said in an email to customers on Wednesday.