Nigerian Crypto Startup Lazorpay Shutdown Amid Lack of Funds

Lazorpay, a Nigerian Web3 and crypto company, announced halting its operations.

As per a Twitter post, Lazorpay shut down its function because it failed to secure funds in a funding round.

In an official release, Emmanuel Njoku, the Chief Executive Officer of Lazorpay, expressed that he is immensely grateful for his company’s connections and significant impacts in the crypto sector. The company tried hard to survive and serve the industry with its utmost best, but unfortunately, the company plans to shut down permanently due to a lack of funds.

Lazorpay fired its employees in November 2022 and laid them off after failing to secure funds, and its lead investors pulled their hands back. Lazorpay is still focused on resolving the problems faced by their users till now.

The fintech startup instructed its existing users to withdraw their assets before April 2023 ends. In addition, this company is inviting national and multinational crypto-focused companies to purchase their intellectual properties.

Lazorpay was developed by Emmanuel Njoku, Abdulfatai Suleiman, and Prosper Ubi in 2021. The aim behind the development of Lazorpay was to promote the global acceptance of crypto and to develop a gateway through which customers can quickly transfer stablecoin to the merchants.

The CEO of Lazorpay said that the company has collaborations with more than 3000 shop owners/merchants and processes around $1 Million in transactions daily. According to Crunchbase data Lazorpay raised $100K in its seed funding round, and Nestcoin and Musha Ventures led the investment.

Many more crypto startups are striving for funds, but due to dozens of unprecedented events in the last three years, investors are afraid to invest in budding companies. Earlier in 2022, the FTX collapse stirred the entire crypto industry.

If events like FTX and Luna are repeated in the sector, crypto adoption will decrease. The only feature that attracts the user towards crypto is its decentralization and anonymity feature.

Nigeria must ensure the technological infrastructure and know how to address looming challenges to make the digital currency successful. Citizens should also be educated about adverse situations that might arise.

It is believed that FTX and Luna’s collapse broke investors’ trust, and as of now, it is hard for investors to trust crypto. Most importantly, to regain the confidence of crypto enthusiasts and users again, leading firms must ensure a high level of security and maintain all other aspects that are the basis of crypto.

Disclaimer

The views and opinions stated by the author, or any people named in this article, are for informational purposes only and do not establish financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading crypto assets comes with a risk of financial loss.