Cardtonic Takes the Stage at Web Summit Vancouver 2026 With a Masterclass on Building a Self-Funding Fintech

Lagos, Nigeria, June 5th, 2026, FinanceWire

Cardtonic, a leading African fintech platform serving over 1.8 million active users, announced the participation of its Growth Lead, Tomi Oduyemi, in a masterclass at Web Summit Vancouver 2026. Titled “Building a Fintech That Funds Itself: 1.8M+ Users Later,” the session gave founders and operators a ground-level look at how Cardtonic grew from a gift card trading startup into a multi-product fintech super-app, without relying on institutional funding for most of its journey.

A Business Built Around Problem Solving

Cardtonic’s story started in 2018 when founders Usman and Kay put in 5 million Naira of personal savings to solve a problem they kept running into: millions of people connected globally through money, gifts, and commerce, but blocked by missing financial infrastructure. Think of a cousin abroad sending a gift card you can’t actually spend because the local infrastructure simply doesn’t support it.

From day one, the company organised itself around a single internal question: “How does this bring in money?” Not how fast can we grow, not how do we raise the next round. Just that one question. It became the DNA of the business.

“The best businesses are born from inefficiency,” Oduyemi told the audience. “You need a real problem that nobody profitable has bothered to fix yet.”

Following the Pain, Not the Plan

Cardtonic started as a gift card platform but always saw itself as a payments company. That distinction mattered when regulatory changes forced the company to spin out its crypto off-ramp services into a separate product called Breet. Rather than resist the change, the team adapted and kept moving.

“Your first idea is a draft,” Oduyemi said.

Today the platform includes virtual dollar cards, NFC-enabled tap-to-pay cards, eSIM services, bill payments, and a gadget e-commerce store. None of those were in the original roadmap. Each one came from watching what users kept struggling with and building a solution around it.

“We used what we had, moved to where the pain was deeper, and kept going,” she explained.

How Thin Margins Built a Disciplined Company

Operating on fluctuating exchange-rate spreads in the early days meant there was no room for careless spending. That financial pressure forced a level of discipline that became one of Cardtonic’s lasting strengths.

When Nigerian banks cut international spending limits in 2022, and consumers scrambled to make global payments, Cardtonic saw another gap to fill. The company expanded its alternative payment options and launched its Virtual Dollar Card in 2024. According to Oduyemi, the product now contributes nearly half of total revenue.

“Find the wall people keep hitting and build the door,” she said. “When you have no war chest to dip into, you get very good at making decisions that hold up.”

Revenue as Information, Not Just Income

One idea ran through the entire session: revenue tells you things investor money cannot. According to Oduyemi, it shows what customers actually value, whether the business model works, and what kind of growth the company can realistically support.

“We stayed self-funded because every time we looked at our numbers, the business was telling us it didn’t need investors yet,” she said.

That changed last December when Cardtonic raised $2.1 million. But the raise was tied to a specific need: building out Pil, the company’s B2B card spend management platform, which required compliance systems, liquidity support, and operational infrastructure that cost real money to build properly.

“The full amount came from angel investors who had seen our work up close for years,” Oduyemi explained. “It was less like a business pitch and felt more like inviting people into a story they had already watched unfold.”

Her message to founders: understand the difference between wanting capital and actually needing it.

Reflections on Scaling and Fundraising

Oduyemi closed the masterclass by addressing the question the company gets most: would they have grown faster if they had raised earlier? “Maybe,” she said. “But faster isn’t always better. “Know the problem you’re solving. Understand who you’re building for. Trust your revenue. Spend like every dollar has to come back. And when you finally choose to raise, do it because you’ve earned the right to go bigger, not because you need someone else’s money to survive.”

At a time when investors are paying closer attention to sustainable unit economics over growth-at-all-costs narratives, Cardtonic’s masterclass offered something practical: proof that a self-funding model, built in a tough market, can still reach global scale.

About Cardtonic

Cardtonic is a fast-growing fintech super-app enabling payments beyond borders through alternative channels such as virtual dollar cards and digital assets. The platform serves more than 1.5 million users, providing frictionless access to global payments, secure gift card exchange, international bills, and digital connectivity via eSIMs.

With a strong culture of discipline, speed, and customer trust, Cardtonic gives Africans the freedom to transact globally without relying solely on limited traditional banking rails. For more information, users can visit www.cardtonic.com

Contact