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IOIfeanyi O.

Full-stack engineer · Founder, Zephra

I build AI and fintech software that holds up in production.

LLM pipelines, wallets and payouts, and multi-tenant SaaS — shipped for real users. Founder of Zephra, the studio behind me when you need a whole team.

  • LLM pipelines
  • Payments & wallets
  • Multi-tenant SaaS
  • Next.js
  • NestJS
5+
Years engineering
25+
Shipped projects
10+
Production clients
Start a project See the work

Booking projects for Q4 2026

Portrait of Ifeanyi Onyekwelu, full-stack engineer, adjusting his glasses
ifeanyi@xife3.space

Enugu, Nigeria · UTC+1

Download résumé
  • Next.js
  • NestJS
  • TypeScript
  • PostgreSQL
  • Redis
  • BullMQ
  • LangChain
  • OpenAI
  • Prisma
  • Docker
  • Flutterwave
  • Paystack
  • Stripe
  • AWS

Selected work

Work that's live, used and paying out.

Client platforms and Zephra products. Each case study says what I built — and what I'd fix next.

BoxieAI unified inbox with emails sorted into Urgent, Opportunity and Noise

AI · Email · 2026

BoxieAI

Read the case study

An AI inbox that unifies several Gmail accounts, triages every email as Urgent, Opportunity or Noise, and drafts the reply. Live with Paystack subscriptions.

Sole engineerNestJS · BullMQ · GPT-4o

Next fixGmail history API for incremental sync

X2Factor dashboard showing wallets, tasks and earnings

Fintech · Rewards platform · 2026

X2Factor

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A live rewards platform paying out real money through Flutterwave: three wallets per user and a ledger that explains every naira.

Lead engineerNestJS · Drizzle · Flutterwave

Livex2factor.com

ReginaNostra Schools website homepage

SaaS · Education · 2025

ReginaNostra Schools

Read the case study

Public site, student portal and admin console that replaced a paper workflow for records, results and fees, with staff trained after launch.

Sole engineerReact · Express · MongoDB

Next fixPayment gateway so fees reconcile automatically

PayZeph bill payment app home screen

Fintech · Bill payments · 2026

PayZeph

Read the case study

Wallet funding and bill payments for airtime, data, power and TV, with automatic refunds when a provider call fails. Shipped in 14 days.

Lead engineerNestJS · PostgreSQL · Redis

Next fixAtomic wallet debit to rule out overdraws

More work

Have something similar in mind?

The story

I care about the boring parts — the ledger, the retry, the refund that fires when a provider fails.

Ifeanyi Onyekwelu in profile against a dark background
“Every naira should be explainable.”The rule I build by

I started out teaching software development at Aptech in 2022, which taught me to explain systems before I build them. Since then I've shipped for fintech, SaaS and education teams — payment layers, LLM pipelines and the dashboards people run their business on.

Today I build product at Babelos and run Zephra Studio, a senior-led practice for founders who need one reliable engineer or a small team behind them.

What drives me is simple: software that pays out real money or reads someone's inbox has to be boring in the best way. Signed webhooks, idempotent references, refunds that fire on their own. That's the work.

Years engineering
5+
Shipped projects
25+
Production clients
10+
Shipping since
2022
Trusted byBabelosKedusoftWorld Brain TechReginaNostraProximaRicald AI

Experience

Five years, seven teams, one habit: ship it, then stay.

Most of my clients still have my number. That's the part of the job I'm proudest of.

  1. Zephra Studio

    Founder · Engineering Lead

    Leading Zephra Studio as a senior-led engineering practice for early-stage startups and growth teams. Building AI-enabled SaaS products, productizing LangChain workflows, and shipping platform-grade software with a focus on reliability and speed.

    RemoteMar 2026 — Present

  2. Babelos

    Software Engineer · Full-Stack

    Building a production SaaS on Next.js + NestJS with Dockerised microservices. Designing PostgreSQL schemas, Redis caching, REST/GraphQL surfaces, and integrating LLM-powered features into the product.

    RemoteSep 2025 — Present

  3. Kedusoft

    Software Engineer · Full-Stack

    Built SaaS and fintech platforms with Stripe and Paystack payment integrations. Optimised PostgreSQL queries, added Redis caching, and deployed via Docker + GitHub Actions CI/CD.

    RemoteSep 2024 — Jul 2025

  4. World Brain Technology

    Software Engineer · Full-Stack

    Built a SaaS platform for SMEs using React, Node.js, GraphQL, and PostgreSQL. Designed dashboards for data visualisation and deployed to AWS + GCP.

    Enugu, NGFeb 2024 — Aug 2024

  5. CV2 Career Internship

    Junior Developer Intern

    Contributed to a SaaS platform built with Python and Firebase. Shipped features, fixed bugs, and participated in code reviews — hands-on exposure to agile workflows and CI/CD.

    RemoteAug 2023 — Jan 2024

  6. Aptech Computer Education

    Lecturer · Software Development

    Taught full-stack web development — JavaScript, React, Node.js, and databases. Mentored students through hands-on projects and designed structured curriculum materials.

    Enugu, NGSep 2022 — Dec 2023

  7. BeeTec

    Freelance Contract Developer

    Delivered client projects end-to-end — built and deployed responsive web applications, integrated third-party APIs, and optimised performance against tight deadlines while collaborating with remote teams.

    RemoteApr 2022 — Aug 2022

Zephra Studio

One engineer when you need focus. A studio when you need a team.

Senior-led engineering studio for early-stage startups, growth teams and founders who need a reliable development partner.

Visit zephra.dev
  1. 01

    Product builds

    SaaS platforms taken from idea to launch, with senior engineers owning delivery end to end.

    Seen inFlowAnalytics MediBook

  2. 02

    AI integration

    LLM features, LangChain workflows and RAG pipelines wired into real product flows — and kept cheap.

    Seen inBoxieAI

  3. 03

    Platform engineering

    Payments, APIs, infrastructure and CI/CD that scale past MVP without a rewrite.

    Seen inPayZeph X2Factor

Recent studio workBoxieAIPayZephFlowAnalyticsMediBook

Process

How a project moves from brief to launch.

Whether you're hiring me or the studio, every project runs the same calm, transparent way.

  1. Step 1

    Discover

    We start with a call about the problem, the people it's for and what success looks like. You get a written scope and estimate.

  2. Step 2

    Design

    I map the architecture and the key screens before writing code, so surprises happen on paper, not in production.

  3. Step 3

    Build

    Weekly demos on a live preview link. You see real progress, not status reports.

  4. Step 4

    Launch & support

    Deployment, monitoring, handover docs and team training — and I stay reachable after launch.

Kind words

What clients say after launch.

  • When our school launched in mid-2025, we urgently needed a proper school management website. I reached out to Ifeanyi, and he delivered a complete platform from scratch. He didn't just build it — he also trained our staff and stayed available even after launch to make sure everything worked smoothly. We were very satisfied with the result.
    RCRev Fr ChristopherProduct Manager · ReginaNostra Schools
  • Ifeanyi joined us mid-sprint and hit the ground running — no hand-holding needed. He rebuilt our payment integration with Stripe and Paystack in under two weeks, fixing edge cases that had been causing silent failures for months. If you need someone who understands fintech complexity and still ships fast, he's your guy.
    NnNnamdiCo-Founder & CEO · Kedusoft
  • What stood out about Ifeanyi wasn't just the code quality — it was the thinking behind it. He proposed the microservices split that cut our API response times by nearly half, and he documented everything properly. Rare combination of speed and precision.
    GPGodson PiusCo-Founder & CEO · World Brain Technology
  • Ifeanyi owned the frontend and the API surface that talked to our contracts — including the messy IPFS pieces most devs avoid. He got it working and kept it stable under load. The marketplace launched with zero critical incidents.
    SSamuelBlockchain Developer · MintVerse

Contact

Have something in mind? Let's talk it through.

Tell me about the project: what it is, where it stands and where it needs to go. I reply within one working day.

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