Universal Market Ecosystem Infrastructure (UMEI) - Durandel Limited

Company Description

Durandel is a pioneering Nigerian market systems innovation company headquartered in Benin City, Edo State. It designs, builds, and optimizes market ecosystems in aquaculture, agriculture, retail, and related sectors across Africa, advancing commercially viable solutions like the Universal Market Ecosystem Infrastructure (UMEI) and integrated supply chains for sustainable growth.

Countries of Operation

Nigeria

Ownership of Company

Local Company | Entreprise locale (100%)

Number of years since incorporated

9

Project Pitch

UMEI® is the world's first regenerative market cloud and operating system for planetary shared abundance. Developed by Durandel, it serves as foundational infrastructure that makes informal and fragmented markets legible, executable, investable, and regenerative at global scale. Rooted in Africa's timeless wisdom of circulation and stewardship, UMEI bridges formal/informal economies, halves value-chain waste, unlocks trapped capital at the base, and aligns markets with planetary health—turning extraction into inclusive, circulating prosperity.

Business Model

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) infrastructure: Modular layers for market ecosystem automation, powered by AI orchestration, blockchain-verified trust, and tokenized co-ownership. Revenue from transaction fees, premium orchestration services, data insights for stakeholders, ecosystem licensing, and regenerative finance integrations (ReFi). Monetizes by enabling efficient flows across buyers/sellers, investors, and communities.

Operations

Modular, AI-driven framework automates ecosystem creation/management/integration. Distributed teams handle protocol design, systems engineering, and planetary strategy. MVP targeted Q4 2026, with 20+ proofs-of-concept complete. Focus: Africa-first scaling to global impact via AfCFTA alignment and partnerships.

Team

Durandel is powered by a high-calibre team of visionary entrepreneurs, seasoned executives, and world-class advisors who combine deep expertise in market systems innovation, cross-border trade facilitation, financial strategy, technology deployment, and regulatory excellence across Africa. This collective strength positions us perfectly to scale UMEI (Universal Market Ecosystem Infrastructure), DuraGel (integrated smoked/canned fish processing and pharma-grade gelatin/collagen facility), and Aquadur (digital live-fish supply chain with FishX digital marketplace, FishX Plus retail store, LATAAS transport, and LASAAS storage) along the Abidjan–Lagos Corridor.

Founder & CEO

• Jude Onemolease – Visionary architect of the entire ecosystem. Jude conceived UMEI after extensive stakeholder engagement across Africa, secured trademarks and patents, and is driving the three integrated aquaculture and market projects to commercial launch in Q4 2026.

Seasoned Leadership

• Vasu Kunjithapatham – COO, operations and execution excellence
• John Adaba – CFO, financial structuring and scalability
• Mihir Sen – CTO, AI-powered platform and infrastructure architecture

Key Strategic Advisors

• Dolapo Kukoyi – Founder & Lead Advisor Open Spaces and Bridges Advisory (Infrastructure Consulting)
• José Almeida – Senior Advisor

World-Class Advisory Board (bringing unmatched trade, legal, and business development insight)

• Ogho Okiti – CEO, ThinkBusiness Africa
• Cromwell Idahosa – Former Chief Judge, Edo State Nigeria (2009–2017)
• Uche Ogboi-Onuzo – CEO, Germinate Roman Medvedev – Senior multi-domain expert in international and intercultural business development
• Peter Ayim – Advisory Board Member (MSME Business Development Services)
• Lilian Oloriegbe – Advisory Board Member (Relian Prime)

Together, this team delivers not just technology, but proven, bankable solutions that unlock efficiency, safety, and profitability in African markets — exactly what investors and corridor stakeholders seek at the EU–West Africa Forum. We are ready to partner and scale.

Type of Project

Private Company project | Projet d’entreprise privée

Stage

Concept stage | Stade conceptuel

Annual Revenue (in EUR)

10.000 - 50.000 EUR

Number of employees

1-10

Total Project Cost (in EUR)

2,600,000

Financing needs (in EUR)

2,600,000

Type of financing needed

• Equity | Fonds propres
• Grant | Subvention

The Company is looking for

Financing | Financement

Planned allocation of fundraising capital

Greenfield (new activity for the company) | Greenfield (nouvelle activité pour l’entreprise)