Lanre Ogungbe recognized that businesses in emerging markets were lacking a secure verification system for processing payments. A graduate of Johns Hopkins’ business school and the Y Combinator accelerator, he sought to fill this gap by launching Identitypass.
Early Life
Lanre Ogungbe grew up in a family that emphasized education. While many of his friends were watching television shows, he and his siblings would watch the evening news and discuss politics. His mother also required that they read the daily newspapers brought home by their father, and Ogungbe credits her especially for nurturing his curiosity about the world.
Undergraduate Education and Early Career
For college, Ogungbe attended Adekunle Ajasin University in Nigeria. On his way to earning his undergraduate degree in computer science, he competed on the debate team, won the vice chancellor’s award of excellence, and served as a staff member for the university’s IT department.
It was at the school that Ogungbe also met fellow computer-science student Tolu Adetuyi. The pair became friends, and later their relationship would extend into business.
While in college, Ogungbe joined the international student social-entrepreneurship organization Enactus. Serving as a team leader, he supervised more than 120 students in carrying out projects for the non-governmental organization.
Ogungbe later became an IT manager for Enactus’ Nigeria office. In this position, he oversaw 35 Enactus IT teams across Nigeria. as well as managed all of the office’s information and communication technology activities.
Ogungbe’s early career also saw him serve as chief operations officer for myPadi.ng, a startup connecting Nigerian students with hostel accommodations. In 2017, he joined Nigeria-based cloud-accounting platform Accounteer. Starting out in the company’s business operations department, he rose to head of business and client services. Among Ogungbe’s colleagues at Accounteer was Niyi Adegboye.
Launching Identitypass
In 2020, while still working at Accounteer, Ogungbe joined with Adetuyi and Adegboye to found Identitypass. The company was initially conceived as a payment-solutions provider. Processing payments requires verifying the identity of customers, and upon realizing that no product on the market suited the company’s needs, Ogungbe and his colleagues decided to build their own system.
With Ogungbe as CEO—and fellow cofounders Adetuyi and Adegboye as chief innovation officer and chief operations officer, respectively—Identitypass launched its verification product in 2021 after receiving $361,000 in pre-seed funding. By this time, Ogungbe had begun pursuing an MBA in analytics, leadership, and innovation at the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School.
Over the next two years, Ogungbe split his time between working toward his graduate degree and leading Identitypass. His time in business school saw him mentor other startup founders through the Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures program. Meanwhile, in 2022, Identitypass was accepted into Y Combinator, a prestigious startup accelerator whose alumni include Airbnb, Instacart, and Reddit.
Growing Identitypass
Identitypass graduated from Y Combinator in March of 2022. Two months later, it announced it had raised $2.8 million in seed funding. By this time, the company had processed more than 1 million verifications. Focused on Africa, its services sought to fill a gap on a continent where, as of 2022, cybercrime was costing businesses $4 billion annually.
In October of 2022, Identitypass announced that it had rebranded its parent company. The name change to Prembly reflected Ogungbe and his colleagues’ desire to build the company into a provider of comprehensive security solutions. Along with its flagship product, Identitypass, it began offering two new products: Identityradar, an AI-powered verification system, and Identityform, a secure data-collection form.
Ogungbe, who also holds a postgraduate diploma from the London School of International Business, completed his MBA in May of 2023. In July, his company announced it had acquired Tunnel, a provider of secure business-to-business data sharing. The purchase furthers the company’s goal of allowing businesses to operate safely in Africa and other developing markets.
Prembly prides itself on offering customized security solutions catered to the needs of each market it serves. As of June of 2023, it does business in 40 countries and counts as its clients some of Africa’s leading banks and startups, for which it completes thousands of verifications each day.
In the coming years, Ogungbe envisions entering other emerging markets, including in Latin America. In doing so, he aims to build Prembly into the leading provider of digital security solutions for the developing world.
Management Style
Ogungbe’s upbring instilled in him an inquisitiveness for people. Although he describes himself as an introvert, he says that his ability to empathize allows him to be an effective communicator.
Ogungbe avoids micromanaging, preferring instead to explain a task clearly ahead of time and to ensure his company has structures in place to consistently communicate what is expected of employees. Despite not always needing to have regular contact with his staff, Ogungbe enjoys making emotional connections with them and described the 2023 death of one Prembly employee as the most difficult time of his startup career.
Volunteerism
Ogungbe advises Nigeria’s elected officials on e-business and intellectual property matters as a volunteer committee member of the National Assembly Business Environment Roundtable. He previously volunteered for more than four years with the United Nations and, among other volunteer activities, has mentored business students through the tech-learning platform Utiva.