Ham Serunjogi is the co-founder and CEO of Chipper Cash. As CEO, Ham is responsible for leading the company’s overall strategy and direction, as well as the Executive Leadership Team.
Ham began working at Meta (formerly Facebook) in Dublin, Ireland in 2016, after graduating from Grinnell College with a bachelor’s degree in economics. His role there entailed forming alliances with some of Facebook’s major UK advertisers.
Furthermore, Ham has been appointed to the Grinnell College Board of Trustees. He is one of four Trustees on the Investment Committee, which is in charge of monitoring, managing, and dispersing the college’s endowment of around $3.5 billion.
Ham was a competitive swimmer for many years and represented Uganda at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in 2010.
Ham was President of the Student Council at the Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa before graduating from Grinnell College with a degree in Economics.
Chipper’s global headquarters in San Francisco, California, currently acts as his Ham’s home base.
Life of “Ham Serunjogi” At a Glance:
Name: Ham Serunjogi
Profession: Chief Executive Officer,
Founder of Chipper Cash
Nationality: Uganda, USA
Education: Grinnell College (Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Economics), and The Aga Khan Academy, Mombasa, Kenya
(International Baccalaureate Diploma Program)
Birth, Education and Early Life of “Ham Serunjogi” :
Ham Serunjogi was born and raised in Uganda and began swimming competitively at the age of six. Ham’s parents encouraged him to excel in both athletics and academics. In 2010, he enrolled in the Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa, Kenya.
While in Kenya, he took part in the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore. He spent a lot of time training and researching leadership and teamwork at AKA Mombasa. He ascended through the ranks to become President of the Student Representative Council.
Throughout his time at the Academy, he was attracted to digital communication. As part of a school assignment back home in Uganda, he interviewed the IT manager of Cineplex Uganda in 2011.
Professionals in education took notice of Ham’s determination. Following his graduation from the Aga Khan Academy, he was offered a scholarship to study in the United States. He majored in economics at Grinnell College while earning his bachelor’s degree.
Ham developed an app with a fellow Grinnell student that allowed users to exchange short audio recordings that were encrypted and self-destructed after playing.
It was a brilliant idea that anticipated the rise of privacy concerns in the digital environment. The app may work in Ghana, where his app partner was born, where voicemail systems are scarce.
His analytical problem-solving abilities, as well as his sense that he could make a difference, drove his success at Grinnell.
As he prepared to graduate from Grinnell, Ham allowed himself to dream big. His ambition was to become the most powerful social media mogul he could find.
He received comments pushing him to apply online within hours of sending him his email. Soon after, recruiters began calling to set up interviews.
He was able to finish an internship with Facebook’s Global Accounts Team in New York following the interviews before graduating from Grinnell College in the summer of 2015.
There, he was given an unusual amount of autonomy to handle issues that were important to him.
His creativity earned him fans. Ham started working full-time at Facebook’s global headquarters in Dublin in August of last year.
He now visits London once a month to meet with clients and promote Facebook at various events. He is in charge of managing partnerships for some of Facebook’s largest UK advertisers.
He recently paid a visit to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg at the company’s Menlo Park, California, headquarters.
Career
The Ugandan CEO Ham Serunjogi met his co-founder in 2012 when both were attending Grinnell College in Iowa.
The two were aware of the challenges of transferring money throughout Africa, but they devised a solution while on a road trip in 2016. In 2018, they made Chipper Cash available to the public, allowing Africans to transfer money overseas in local currency.
Serunjogi, an athlete who competed in the first Youth Olympics in 2010, also studied economics and gave a presentation for Chipper Cash at the annual Stellar Build Challenge, a corporate competition.
Following his $100,000 victory, he drew the attention of venture investors such as Deciens Capital, who gave a $2.4 million first investment. Since then, several investors have expressed interest in Chipper Cash, including FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, Ribbit Capital, and Bezos Expeditions, Jeff Bezos’ investment vehicle.
Chipper Cash, which has over 4 million users, is a no-fee cross-border payment service that is available in seven African countries as well as the United Kingdom and the United States.
According to its estimates, it processed about $100 million each month in 2020 and employed over 200 individuals. Chipper Cash launched peer-to-peer payments among its cryptocurrency products in the same year.
Serunjogi, as CEO, has emphasized growth by acquiring customers through deals and free transactions, which are backed by following investment rounds.
He has enlisted well-known African artists Burna Boy and Simi as brand ambassadors, and Chipper Cash advertising is placed on lampposts and billboards across its operational markets, in addition to fronting Apple-style launch events in San Francisco.
Because of the efforts of Serunjogi and Moujaled, Chipper Cash has developed from a little-known app that promised cross-border payment capabilities to a Pan-African unicorn anticipated to be worth $2 billion for its series C funding round in November 2021.
One of his next significant bets is to bring cryptocurrencies into the mainstream of the continent.
Honours & Awards
When Ham Serunjogi arrived at Grinnell in 2012, he had an excellent resume; the Ugandan student had been the student council president at his high school, The Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa, Kenya, and had participated as a swimmer for his country in the 2010 Youth Olympic Games.
Serunjogi took advantage of every opportunity to pursue his goals while at Grinnell, where he competed in swim team competitions, earned an economics degree, served as treasurer for the Student Government Association, and was employed for an internship at Facebook (now Meta).
Maijid Moujaled, a Ghanaian student at Grinnell who shared Serunjogi’s idealistic mindset, was also introduced to him.
During a 2016 road trip, the two came up with the concept for Chipper Cash, an app that makes it simple for Africans to transfer money across borders.
To begin development on Chipper, the two formed a small team and received a seed investment of around $2 million in early 2019. Chipper Cash has raised almost $300 million in investments since then.
The site has grown tremendously in the previous years, processing billions of dollars annually and claiming over 5 million registered users.
Chipper Cash is valued at $2 billion, with its headquarters in San Francisco and hundreds of employees scattered across 10 countries.
Serunjogi was included in Forbes’ 30 under 30 list in the finance sector in 2023.
Despite heading Chipper Cash on its rocketship adventure, Serunjogi continues to make time for his former institution.
He was elected to the Grinnell College Board of Trustees in 2022 and now leads the committee in charge of the college’s endowment. Serunjogi, who is 28 years old, is Grinnell College’s youngest trustee.
Ham Serunjogi has had ambitions to provide simple and effective options for cross-border payments in Africa, as well as his vision to accomplish it faster than many thought possible
Relationship Maintenance and Giving Back
Ham has repeatedly mentioned of his time in AKA Mombasa, and his relationship with his Academy buddies.
He visited Uganda to meet friends and family before starting his new job in Ireland. Even now, he keeps in touch with Aleem Mawji, his Mombasa housemate who is now a student at the University of British Columbia. Joshua Tibatemwa, a fellow Ugandan and Ham’s teammate on the AKA swim team, also pursued a swimming career and served as student president.
Joshua followed Ham’s lead and attended Grinnell College, where he is now a student. Joshua represented Uganda at the Rio Olympics last summer.
Taking a vacation from his new life in Dublin, Ham watched the Olympics in the hopes of meeting his friend.
Ham has launched a life of proactive participation, developing networks that improve people’s quality of life. He has seen the influence of these networks himself. He shows a desire to always give back.
Ham Serunjogi Net Worth
As of now, there is no specific information available about his net worth. However, Chipper Cash, the company he co-founded, has garnered $300 million in venture capital investment at a $2.2-billion valuation. This indicates that the company has achieved significant success, but the individual net worth of Ham Serunjogi is not explicitly mentioned in the available sources.
Ham Serunjogi Wikipedia
While there is no Wikipedia page dedicated to Ham Serunjogi, various sources provide insights into his background and the success of Chipper Cash.
Ham Serunjogi Parents
Ham Serunjogi has not publicly disclosed detailed information about his parents. However, various sources mention that he grew up in Uganda and started swimming competitively at a young age, with his parents encouraging both his academics and athletics. Additionally, an article by David Kangye mentions that Ham Serunjogi is one of three boys and the middle child in a small family of five. While specific details about his parents are not available, these sources provide insights into his upbringing and the support he received from his family.
Ham Serunjogi Forbes
Ham Serunjogi is a Ugandan entrepreneur and the co-founder of Chipper Cash, a San Francisco-based fintech startup. Chipper Cash is a mobile cross-border money transfer platform that allows users to send and receive money across seven African countries. Serunjogi, a Grinnell College graduate, was named one of the honorees on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in finance for 2023. He and his co-founder, Maijid Moujaled, started the company with a test version of their app in July 2018, enabling customers to send money from Uganda to Ghana for free. Chipper Cash has over five million customers, and Serunjogi is focused on maintaining its growth and moving towards profitability while helping Africans benefit from the service. For more information, you can visit the Forbes profile of Ham Serunjogi.
Ham Serunjogi Wife
Based on the available information, there are no public details about Ham Serunjogi’s wife. The focus of the available sources is primarily on his professional endeavors, particularly as the co-founder and CEO of Chipper Cash, a fintech startup. Therefore, there is no verifiable information regarding his marital status or spouse.
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