Foren Emerges From Leatherback's Ghost After Crisis & Zedcrest Takeover

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Foren Emerges From Leatherback’s Ghost After Crisis & Zedcrest Takeover

By
Staff Reporter
 |  October 5, 2026

Leatherback, the Nigerian-born, UK-headquartered cross-border payments company rocked by a string of upheavals of late, is now Foren. The name change, announced today, comes two months after Nigerian financial services group, Zedcrest, completed a full acquisition of the startup it first backed in a USD 10 M pre-seed in 2022. It marks the final erasure of a brand that spent two years fighting for its survival.

In November 2023, Nigerian authorities alleged that a shipping company, SDQ Facilitators, had used a Leatherback account to defraud victims of about USD 10 M. The EFCC declared co-founder and CEO Ibrahim Ibitade wanted, and Leatherback’s Nigerian bank accounts were blocked.

The company sued; Ibitade filed a human rights suit, and in February 2025, a Federal High Court in Lagos ordered the permanent forfeiture of over USD 800 K traced to SDQ’s dollar wallet on the Leatherback platform. Ibitade was cleared of wrongdoing, but the reputational damage was done.

He stepped down in October 2024, citing a desire to start a family and “multiple misalignments of goals and visions” with lead investor Zedcrest. By February 2025, he had launched Prune Payments, a direct competitor to the company he founded. Interim CEO Toni Campbell exited in June 2025. Former Cellulant executive Ochebhoya Ekpete took over in August 2025 and immediately pivoted the company from consumer remittances to enterprise infrastructure.

The rebrand is being framed as an evolution. Ekpete says the company spent two years “rebuilding everything a customer relies on but rarely sees” and that “by the time that work was done, we were a different company, and Leatherback no longer described us”.

While Leatherback was not found guilty of anything and the founder was cleared, it appears the company has figured it’s better off moving on from its previous identity, as the association with a fraud investigation can often prove too toxic to shake.

Foren now positions itself as a unified platform for global accounts, cross-border payouts, foreign exchange, and treasury management, targeting businesses rather than individuals.

Zedcrest’s backing gives it the capital and institutional cover to pursue regulatory licences and banking partnerships that a scandal-tainted startup could never secure alone. The company plans hubs in Canada and Kenya to complement its London headquarters and new West African base in Nigeria.