Ham Serunjoji is a Ugandan Entrepreneur and the Co-founder and CEO of chipper cash financial technology company that simplifies money transfers across Africa.
Early Life and Growing Up in Uganda
Ham Serunjoji was born on December 2, 1993, and grew up in Kayebe, Gayaza, in a family of five. His parents were self-employed and ran a farm for seven years before moving into other businesses.
He is the middle child of three boys and grew up watching his parents work hard to support the family. His father regularly took him to school and swimming practice while coaching along the way.
The Competitive Swimmer Who Represented Uganda
Since Ham began competitive swimming at the age of six, he went on to represent Uganda at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. He competed in the boys’ 50-metre butterfly and 100-metre butterfly, finishing 20th and 34th, respectively.
In 2011, he participated in a Coast Amateur Swimming Association gala in Kenya, where he won seven medals, including two gold medals, and broke three Ugandan national records in the 200-metre butterfly, 100-metre butterfly and 200-metre individual medley. He also set a new record in the 200-metre butterfly at the gala.
The School That Shaped His Leadership
In 2010, Ham Serunjoji left Uganda to join the Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa, Kenya.
At the academy, Ham balanced academics, swimming and student leadership. In his final year, he served as President of the Student Representative Council, representing fellow students and working with school leaders.
After completing the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in 2012, Ham received a scholarship to study economics at Grinnell College in Iowa.
Moving to America to Study Economics
In 2012, Ham Serunjoji moved to the United States to continue his education at Grinnell College in Iowa, where he pursued an Economics degree.
At Grinnell, Ham competed on the college’s swimming team and served as treasurer of the Student Government Association. He also met Maijid Moujaled, a Ghanaian student, and they discovered a shared interest in using technology to address challenges in Africa.
In 2016, Ham graduated from Grinnell College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics
His First Technology Experiments
Ham Serunjoji and his college friend Maijid Moujaled experimented with different technology ideas at Grinnell College in the United States, aiming to solve practical problems in Uganda and Ghana.
Their first idea was a logistics application to help drivers and trucking companies track fleets across Africa, but it did not succeed. They then developed a voice-messaging application that allowed users to send short, encrypted voice recordings that disappeared after being played, particularly targeting places where traditional voicemail services were not widely available. However, this application was also unsuccessful.
Rather than giving up after these setbacks, they used the experiences to learn from their mistakes and improve their approach to building technology products.
How got job at Facebook
As Ham Serunjoji neared the end of his Economics studies at Grinnell College in the United States, he set his sights on Facebook, one of the world’s largest technology companies. Instead of the usual online application, he took a direct approach and emailed Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer at the time, asking for help securing an internship.
She responded the following day and connected him with the company’s recruitment team. After the interview process, Ham secured an internship on Facebook’s Global Accounts Team in New York in the summer of 2015, before his final year at college.
During the internship, he worked on problem-solving and developing ideas, took initiative, and demonstrated his abilities. His performance earned him an offer to return to Facebook full-time after graduating.
In 2016, Ham joined Facebook’s Dublin office in Ireland, managing relationships with major advertisers in the United Kingdom and gaining valuable ex
The Road Trip That Inspired Chipper Cash
In 2016, Ham Serunjoji and his college friend, Maijid Moujaled, took a road trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles, with stops in Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz. Ham was preparing to move to Ireland for his full-time job at Facebook after graduating from Grinnell College.
During the drive, they spent hours discussing cryptocurrency, financial technology and listening to podcasts. Their conversation turned to the challenges of sending money across African countries, where different currencies and expensive transfer services made transactions complicated and costly.
Having grown up in Uganda and Ghana, Ham and Maijid understood the need for more accessible financial services. Their discussions sparked the idea for Chipper Cash—a technology-driven solution aimed at making sending and receiving money across African countries easier and more affordable.
The Birth of Chipper Cash in 2018
In 2018, after working at Facebook in Dublin, Ireland, Ham Serunjoji left his job to pursue the business idea he had been developing with Maijid Moujaled. He returned to the San Francisco Bay Area, where Maijid was working in technology, and together they focused on building a mobile payment platform that would make cross-border transfers easier and more affordable.
Using less than $30,000 in combined savings, they got the business off the ground while Maijid continued working to support himself.
In July 2018, they launched an early version of Chipper Cash, initially allowing users to send money from Uganda to Ghana for free. Uganda became the first market, followed by Kenya. The service connected different mobile money networks, allowing users to transfer funds without needing the same telecom provider.
The company officially went live in October 2018, focusing on peer-to-peer payments and cross-border transfers. To convince investors and expand beyond its initial markets, Ham and Maijid turned to startup competitions and accelerator programmes.
Taking Chipper Cash Beyond Uganda
After launching Chipper Cash in 2018, Ham Serunjoji and his co-founder, Maijid Moujaled, began expanding the platform beyond Uganda. Uganda was the company’s first market, followed by Kenya in 2018, then Ghana, Rwanda and Tanzania in 2019.
In 2019, Chipper Cash entered Nigeria, giving the company access to one of Africa’s largest populations and creating opportunities to serve more users through its digital payment services. As the company grew, it attracted customers and secured partnerships to support its operations across different markets.
By 2021, Chipper Cash had entered the United Kingdom, and in 2022, it announced its launch in the United States and expanded into South Africa, making it easier for African users and people living abroad to send money internationally.
As Chipper Cash entered new markets, its services expanded beyond basic money transfers to include virtual cards and investment-related services.
The Investors Behind His Growing Company
As Chipper Cash expanded across Africa, Ham Serunjoji and co-founder Maijid Moujaled needed investors to provide the funding and support needed to grow the platform.
In May 2019, Chipper Cash raised US$2.4 million in seed funding, led by Deciens Capital, with participation from 500 Startups and Liquid 2 Ventures, co-founded by former American football player Joe Montana. Ham personally spoke to Montana about investing in the company.
In December 2019, the company raised another US$6 million from Deciens Capital and Raptor Group, supporting its expansion across the continent.
In 2020, Chipper Cash raised US$13.8 million in Series A funding, led by Deciens Capital and Raptor Group, followed by US$30 million in Series B funding led by Ribbit Capital, with participation from Bezos Expeditions, the investment firm associated with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The biggest milestone came in 2021, when Chipper Cash raised US$100 million in Series C funding, led by SVB Capital, followed by a US$150 million Series C extension led by FTX, bringing its total Series C funding to US$250 million.
These funding rounds gave Chipper Cash the resources to expand its services and strengthen its position in the financial technology market.
The Challenges That Tested Chipper Cash
In 2022 investors became more cautious about funding technology companies, Chipper Cash faced financial pressure and laid off about 50 employees in December, followed by another round of job cuts in 2023.
Things became even more challenging after the collapse of FTX, one of Chipper Cash’s major investors. The company’s valuation, which had reached about US$2.2 billion in 2021, later dropped to around US$1.25 billion.
In March 2024, Chipper Cash announced further organisational changes, including moving some roles from the United States and the United Kingdom to African markets, while focusing on controlling costs and building a more sustainable business.
Despite these setbacks Ham and Maijid kept Chipper Cash moving forward.
Recognition Beyond Business
Beyond building Chipper Cash, Ham Serunjoji has also received recognition for his work in technology and entrepreneurship. In 2023, he was named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Finance list, recognising young people making an impact in the financial industry.
The same year, he returned to Grinnell College, where he had studied economics, as a commencement speaker and received an honorary Doctor of Social Studies degree.
In September 2023, Ham was also appointed to the US President’s Advisory Council on African Diaspora Engagement in the United States for the 2023–2025 term. The council brought together people who could advise on strengthening connections between the United States and African diaspora communities. His appointment added another milestone to a career that had grown beyond business into wider engagement with the African diaspora.
