Ham Serunjogi ’16 Named Forbes 30 Under 30 in Finance for 2023

Ham Serunjogi ’16, Grinnell College Board of Trustee has been named one of the honorees on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in finance for 2023, which covers traditional financial services, fintech, and crypto and blockchain. The list makers were chosen from more than a thousand nominations and were evaluated by an all-star set of judges.  

Originally from Uganda, Serunjogi graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Grinnell in 2016. After graduation, Serunjogi moved to Dublin, Ireland, where he led Facebook’s partnerships with some of its larger clients in Europe. He left that job in 2018 and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to work full-time as the CEO of Chipper Cash, a venture-capital–backed financial technology company that he co-founded with fellow Grinnell graduate Maijid Moujaled ’14. Both had the desire to make a positive impact on their home continent of Africa by leveraging technology and entrepreneurship. They were also both part of the team that launched Pioneer Weekend, an annual innovation and pitch competition which they have continued to support with a $50,000 grant via the Ham Serunjogi and Maijid Moujaled Fund for Entrepreneurship.  

Launched in 2018, Chipper Cash builds software to enable free and instant cross-border peer-to-peer money transfers and personal investment, as well as solutions for businesses and merchants to process online and in-store payments. It offers mobile-based, no fee, P2P payment services, and is present in nine countries: Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Africa, Kenya, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The company has received funding from Ribbit Capital, Jeff Bezos, and Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana to name a few.   

In total Chipper raised over $300 million and is widely considered one of the most valuable startups in Africa valued at over $2 Billion. 

Read the full article here - Forbes 30 Under 30 Finance 2023  

Watch the video of Serunjogi discussing Chipper Cash and how Maijid and he got started, where they are now, expansions, what drives his entrepreneurial spirit, the hurdles and challenges.  

Editor's note: This article originally incorrectly stated Serunjogi graduated with a Bachelor of Science instead of a Bachelor of Arts. We apologize for the error.