Ajua said it acquired Kenya’s WayaWaya. WayaWaya says it never happened

Many founders spend years trying to convince investors that their companies are worth acquiring. For Teddy Ogallo, the founder of WayaWay, a Kenyan artificial intelligence (AI)startup, the past five years have been spent trying to convince people that he never sold his company.

Inside a folder on his laptop are consultancy agreements, shareholder records, emails, legal correspondence, regulatory letters, and screenshots of old news articles and texts. According to Ogallo, these records document years of efforts to challenge reports that his company had been acquired in 2021.

However, public records and online reports continue to reflect a different narrative. Since April 2021, Ogallo says he has had to navigate two competing versions of WayaWaya’s history. In one, supported by company records and seen by TechCabal, the startup remains an independent business serving banks and telecommunications companies across Africa.

In another version reflected by search results, startup databases, and media reports, WayaWaya was acquired by Ajua, a customer experience startup, on April 28, 2021, following the latter’s announcement that it had acquired the company to strengthen its consumer intelligence platform.

This contradiction has persisted for years. According to Ogallo, it has left the company’s founder and board repeatedly addressing questions generated by those reports.

“The reports created questions from clients, partners and stakeholders regarding WayaWaya’s status and continuity,” Ogallo told TechCabal on June 4 in an emailed response.

“We had to provide additional explanations and documentation during partnership and due diligence discussions to clarify that WayaWaya continued operating independently.”

The dispute extends beyond the question of whether WayaWaya changed ownership in 2021. It also raises questions about how corporate histories are recorded when public reporting and company records appear to conflict.

A consultancy, not a sale

The irony is that Ogallo’s relationship with Ajua was real.

In early 2021, both companies moved in many of the same circles. Africa’s technology sector was in the middle of a pandemic boom, venture capital was pouring into the continent, and founders regularly crossed paths at investor meetings, conferences, and product demonstrations.

Ogallo, who had spent years building conversational AI products for banks and telecommunications companies, says he met Ajua’s founder, Kenfield Griffith, during that period, and the two stayed in touch as their businesses evolved.

According to Ogallo, the discussions focused on his expertise rather than on the acquisition of his company.

In March 2021, he signed a consultancy agreement to join Ajua as Vice President for Product APIs and Integrations, a role focused on enterprise systems and product integration as Ajua expanded its operations around MTN Nigeria’s EnGauge platform and other large deployments.

According to Ogallo, the arrangement included the transfer of software he personally owned—an integration platform known as Janja—to Ajua alongside standard stock options and consultancy compensation.

“There was never any formal or informal engagement or conversation between the two companies on any acquisition,” Ogallo said. “I never once discussed an acquisition with the Ajua team either formally, informally, on the record, or off the record.”

While consultancy agreements were being drafted, communications materials seen by TechCabal presented the relationship differently.

Internal briefing documents seen by TechCabal described WayaWaya as a company that Ajua planned to acquire for its artificial intelligence and messaging capabilities. The documents framed the transaction as evidence that Africa’s startup ecosystem was beginning to mature through consolidation, arguing that acquisitions would allow technology companies to scale more quickly across the continent.

Another briefing prepared ahead of an interview with TechCrunch advised Ajua executives to “sell the acquisition side,” presenting the deal as a milestone for African innovation.

On April 28, 2021, TechCrunch reported that Ajua acquired WayaWaya “to consolidate consumer experience play in African SMEs.” Other publications, including Kenya’s Business Daily, followed.

The acquisition narrative subsequently spread across media reports, databases, and search results.

Wimbart, the agency that handled the announcement, declined to comment.

Ogallo says he was surprised by the announcement.

There had been no shareholder negotiations, no board approvals, no valuation discussions, and no agreement to transfer ownership of WayaWaya. The company was instead preparing to expand its banking products to other African markets.

“After seeing the announcement, I raised concerns and requested clarification because the characterisation did not align with my understanding of the relationship or with the documentation that existed,” he said.

The confusion moved beyond public relations. His customers wanted to know whether existing contracts would survive under a new ownership. The company’s shareholders and directors sought explanations about a transaction they never discussed.

Then the regulator, the Competitions Authority of Kenya (CAK), came knocking.

The government’s knock

In September 2021, the CAK wrote WayaWaya seeking information regarding what it described as the “alleged acquisition” of the company.

The regulator requested transaction agreements, proof of payment, and board resolutions approving the deal, reminding the company that mergers above statutory thresholds require regulatory approval.

For Ogallo, the request bordered on absurdity.

After months of insisting that no acquisition had taken place, he was asked by the competition regulator to provide information regarding a transaction he says never occurred. A separate request was sent to Ajua.

Ajua’s legal counsel responded by challenging the CAK’s jurisdiction rather than addressing the substance of the alleged acquisition. In a letter dated September 14, 2021, the company’s lawyer, Steven Peluso, said that both Ajua and WayaWaya were incorporated in the US state of Delaware and argued that the business relationship between the two companies fell outside the reach of Part IV of Kenya’s Competition Act.

To support that position, he attached corporate registration records for both entities from the Delaware Division of Corporations.

As Ajua argued that the matter lay outside the Kenyan regulator’s jurisdiction, the narrative that WayaWaya had been acquired continued to circulate online largely unchanged.

CAK did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ogallo says he spent months contacting journalists and publications, requesting corrections and setting the record straight. He posted clarifications under the articles and shared corporate records with reporters.

“I consistently asked Ajua and Kenfield to pull down the article,” he said. “I reached out to the writers at news stations such as TechCrunch to pull down the article. I publicly commented on any news article I found that mentioned this non-existent acquisition.”

Emails and messages reviewed by TechCabal show that TechCrunch declined to remove its original report but expressed interest in examining Ogallo’s claims, requesting documentation and discussing a follow-up article. Ogallo supplied contracts and correspondence, but the follow-up never appeared.

“We are not looking for cheap publicity,” he wrote to TechCrunch in a LinkedIn message dated June 26, 2023. “The least we deserve is confirmation that we are operating as our own company with the original founders and investors.”

TechCrunch did not respond to requests for comment.

Unresolved history

The timing of the acquisition announcement mattered. African venture capital reached record highs in the post-COVID-19 period, and acquisitions—still rare on the continent at the time—became symbols of an ecosystem’s maturity.

An exit signalled that African startups could generate sufficient value to attract buyers, lifting investor confidence in the market. Ajua’s announcement fitted perfectly into that narrative.

Barely a month later, the company announced a $1.5 million seed extension, adding further momentum to its expansion in customer experience software and AI.

TechCabal found no evidence that investors relied on the WayaWaya announcement when making their investment decision, but the acquisition became part of Ajua’s public story in interviews and media coverage even as questions emerged over what had actually changed hands.

Five years later, the history remains contested. Ajua founder Kenfield Griffith told TechCabal, “The transaction was cancelled back in 2023, and the asset divested,” declining to elaborate on which transaction he meant.

According to documents seen by TechCabal, Ajua’s legal counsel did not dispute CAK’s inquiry by explaining the nature of the transaction. Instead, the company argued that both Ajua and WayaWaya were incorporated in the US state of Delaware and that their business relationship fell outside Kenya’s merger laws.

Online records and reports continue to reflect the acquisition narrative.